US Open Day 4 - Is Alcaraz already in title form?

**Catherine Whitaker** (0:10)
Hello, and welcome to The Tennis Podcast, coming to you from the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre at the end of day four of the US Open here in New York. A day that saw Carlos Alcaraz, the defending champion, return to the night session on the Arthur Ashe Stadium. Match number two of his comeback from the wrist injury that saw him spend nearly five months on tennis' sidelines. A four-set win tonight over the talented young Portuguese player, Jaime Faria. 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2. Matt, you and I watched almost all of this from the media seating. How would you rate the Carlos Alcaraz performance tonight?

**Matt Roberts** (0:50)
Well, when we were in the media seating with David, it was about a 5 out of 10 And when David left, about a 10 out of 10
I'm not saying there was correlation there.

**David Law** (1:02)
I'm being bearish. Causation there.

**Matt Roberts** (1:05)
But I thought he was excellent tonight, Carlos Alcaraz. An OK start by his words. He said he felt like he was fine at the start of the match, had a break point, missed an easy forehand, dragged it wide and then played a poor game on serve and ended up losing that set against Faria, who was what I was expecting of him, really. Totally locked in, tough, playing well. And at that point, I was thinking this could be a really tricky night for Carlos Alcaraz, having to win three of the next four sets against a guy who's so max tough right now. But needn't have worried, he turned it on from that point. And okay, I think Faria did dip and his serve became a bit of an issue for him, quite a few double faults. But Alcaraz broke him five times in a row and won eight games in a row. And generally in sets two, three and four was the Carlos Alcaraz that we've seen many times before. Pretty electric, moving brilliantly, unleashing on forehands, bossing points, coming up with great shots at the net.
Really, really good, I thought, for Alcaraz, especially to flick the switch like that mid match and be able to find it and find rhythm.
Yeah, if we were feeling good about him after the first round, I think that's only grown after this one.

**Catherine Whitaker** (2:32)
Yeah, that's it, I think. I was pretty blown away by him in sets two, three and four. And I actually think big picture in the tournament, probably to his benefit, that he did face a bit of competition tonight. He did face some stress and a sticky moment in that match. He knew how talented Faria is, I think, and he was wary of him.
It ended up being fleeting, but there was a moment of real jeopardy in this match.

**Matt Roberts** (2:59)
Yeah, he was also down break point right at the start of the second set.

**David Law** (3:02)
Absolutely, yeah.

**Matt Roberts** (3:02)
And saved it with a drop shot.

**Catherine Whitaker** (3:04)
And I think in the context of the tournament, I think that's good news for Carlos Alcaraz, David.

**David Law** (3:10)
Yeah, and I think it's becoming a little bit of a trend so far in this tournament of big names starting a little bit slowly and talking about long testing matches is something that they think will help them. We heard it from Alexander Zverev last night after coming two points away from defeat. I'll talk a little bit later about what Ben Shelton was saying and he felt similarly. And yeah, I think it did does sharpen the senses. And but the really satisfying thing, I think, from anybody who is an Alcaraz fan, is that he didn't panic and he had gears that he could go to, which I wonder even if Alcaraz knew he had yet. And it was interesting when I did leave the seats and help him along with my absence, I started to watch the TV coverage and there was Mary Curiello and Jimmy Aris commentating on it and one thing that Jimmy said was, does he have the service power to keep these guys off him? And within a few points, he'd knocked down back to back 130 mile an hour serves and that was pretty much the only time he'd done it in the match to that point.
And Jimmy's view was, okay, well that's a big win because I don't think he can win this title without a serve that can do that.
And just, he's finding out in real time, it seems to me, Catherine. Maybe Alcaraz knows a lot more than we think he knows about his current state because of how much he's practiced, etc. But I just don't think you can recreate that until you go out there on a grand slam stage and he's kind of passed the test.