Is that a good tennis ball if the player hits a running shot to save a breakpoint, but then gets broken three unforced errors and double faults? For Carlos Alcaraz, absolutely.
Just like Netflix released the trailer, he provides an example of the signal. Streaming companies released snapshots of the series on YouTube when Alcaraz swayed in the lofty and ridiculous court of Monte Carla Masters against Daniel Altmaier.
It asks some basic questions about tennis: How many stars do it need? How much sacrifice should greatness make? Is there a path to greatness that doesn’t require all players who seek it?
In the match against Altmaier, Alcaraz found himself 30-40 in the first game of the game. The German’s feathers happened to shoot online and dragged Alkaraz forward…
He responded with a sharp cross-field angle…
…but Altmaier read the shot and moved the ball on the court, sending the ball deep into the line on the other side.
Alcaraz ran to the left diagonally and had to hit the ball through his legs. An easier option is to switch the ball back to Hengting. Altmaier officially moved to cover this photo. Alcaraz may obviously not hit it.
Instead, he dragged the ball onto the line, causing Altmaier to scramble to his backhand corner. The German managed to hook the ball back to the game, but Alcaraz was waiting to hit the backhand into the same corner, and Altmaier could only send it to the net.
This is the divine inspiration that Alcaraz brings to the court, sometimes an example of otherworldly skills and joy, and brings him to the upper echelon of tennis.
“That’s a beautiful point,” Alkaraz said later, looking at the shot. “I’m trying to have a show, trying to entertain people. This view… is just to reflect on how my competition will be.”
The rest of the game isn’t that much like this.
After saving this breakout point, Alcaraz missed his regular first hit behind the serve. He saved four more breakout points in the game and maintained a 1-1 service. He then broke Altmaier to lead 3-2 and then encountered three unforced errors and double faults to break directly in the next game.
That was the first set pattern, oscillating between brilliant scores and regular errors, and then Alcalaz beat it 6-3 6-3.
The second set was regular, with the Spaniards eventually winning 6-3, 6-1 to play the quarter-finals against No. 12 seed Arthur Fils.
“I want to do this the way I do,” Alkaraz said in the series trailer, with his goal being the best player in the world. This ambition is combined with the opinions of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, and they both did it.
“To accomplish everything Roger or my own Novak, Roger or myself, you need to feel that the sacrifice is worth it, they pay it off,” Nadal said.
With 66 Grand Slam titles among the three greatest men’s players of all time, there is little debate about how they’ve paid off in terms of their achievements. Alkaraz seems to be asking if they pay it off in other ways.
Alcaraz, 21, already has four Grand Slam titles. He is the youngest to win the profession on all three, and when the Australians open in 2026 and 2027, he still has two chances to become the youngest to win the all four majors.
If he wins the championship in Monaco, he will reiterate second place in the men’s rankings, behind only his closest competitor, and share with him the best player in the world: Jannik Sinner.
His game style is so bizarre that both his victory and losses can seem as if they are from another world.
When he loses, whether it’s a game or the entire game, he often loses a lot. Creativity looks naive, shooting looks like a waste – it tends to happen to smaller players. He has suffered 16 injuries since early 2024, but only six of them were against the top ten players. Two of the six games competed in one, the 2024 ATP Tour final, during which he was struggling. His opponents have an average ranking of 32 out of the other 10 losses.
He is tweaking mentally and technically, most notably with his serve and backhand. He changed his motion to the former, the latter’s racket retrieval, which meant sometimes flowing like water errors, but also revealed a dedication to immediate improvement, a harsh schedule for tennis, one of the hardest things to do.
Alcaraz described the challenge of the schedule in the trailer, highlighting his desire to be able to spend time at home and see his family. If he still wanted to dominate the sport like Djokovic, Nadal and Federer, then time would be limited.
When retired Nadal and Federer’s role in Netflix Talking Heads hint, it’s only possible to determine whether it’s worth it in the end.
On the way, there will be tween.
There will also be errors.
(Top photo: Valery Hache/AFP via Getty Images)
