Carlos Alcaraz served scary ‘unforced’ warning as Spaniard mounts Wimbledon title pressure on Novak Djokovic

When the grass court season had kicked off last month, Carlos Alcaraz had only a 4-2 record on the surface, which came from his two appearances in Wimbledon, with a fourth-round show being his best. But 2023 saw a different and a more confident approach from Alcaraz on grass as he made a title-winning run at The Queen’s in June before arriving at the SW19 where he has now sailed into the third round with back-to-back straight set wins. However, tennis legend Mats Wilander was unhappy with Alcaraz’s performance in his 6-4 7-6(2) 6-3 win over Frenchman Muller on Centre Court on Friday as he issued a scary warning.

Despite the win, Alcaraz made as many as 41 unforced errors in the match where he was dragged into a tie-breaker in the second set. Wilander, in conversation with Eurosport, admitted that that is when the 20-year-old began to dominate the proceedings, albeit with a cautious approach. The seven-time Grand Slam winner further added that Alcaraz might want to take fewer risks of he wants to win his second major next week as blockbuster clash with Novak Djokovic remains on cards in the final.

“That is the key moment for me too because suddenly he decided: ‘okay, I’m not missing. I don’t want to go one set all. I’m going to play within myself’”, Wilander said on the tie-breaker. “And I think, unfortunately, the way forward for him is going to be to play a little more within himself and not take too many risks because you can’t make that many unforced errors if you’re going to win Wimbledon and beat Novak Djokovic along the way. But of course, the people love it. He loves it. I love it. So hopefully he doesn’t change too much but keeps winning.”

When asked the reason behind the Spaniard making so many unforced errors, Wilander said: “I think there is a combination of about four or five things.

“I think, first, Alexandra Muller is a great ball striker and if you let him dictate then he’s going to be very difficult. And I can’t believe he’s just broken into the top 100 because he’s a good player and I think we’re going to see much more from him.

“I saw the stat of Carlos Alcaraz’s forehand – it’s 10 kilometres slower today and 10% less spin rate than the other night when he played Jeremy Chardy under the roof.

“So under the roof tells me that it’s heavier, they’re hitting the ball harder because it doesn’t fly as much. And today, most probably with the heat, the balls are flying, and then he gets a little bit scared and then he doesn’t hit it this hard, but obviously there’s a lot of winners as well.

“So, I think that he has to work on that a little bit. It’s tough when you can’t spin the ball as much as you want to and I think on grass that’s one of the big adjustments that you have to make because it is not as easy I don’t think.”

Alcaraz will next face 25th seed Nicolas Jarry for a place in the pre-quarters.