Bedrock self-belief is becoming Carlos Alcaraz's most important asset 

“I believe that at the end I’ll be able to find solutions,” Carlos Alcaraz said when he was asked how he overcame a one-set deficit to beat Tommy Paul, with steadily increasing ease, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, at Wimbledon on Tuesday.

“I believe I can be back if I’m struggling a little bit. Here in the Grand Slams, the matches are longer, I have more time to recover.”

“I knew it was a really long journey.”

So far at Roland Garros and Wimbledon this year, Alcaraz has shown a bedrock confidence in himself like never before. He hasn’t played perfect tennis at either Slam. He hasn’t always been opportunistic or strategically shrewd. He has made plenty of wild errors, fallen behind in the score, and appeared perplexed about what to do next. In Paris, he was down two sets to one in the semis and the final, and last week on Centre Court he was a couple of points from defeat against Frances Tiafoe. Despite all of that, Alcaraz is two victories from one of the sport’s most notoriously difficult feats, the Channel Slam.

Alcaraz took another messy, circuitous route to his win over Paul as well. He fell behind a set and a break to start. He earned 27 break points, and failed to convert 19 of them. He squandered chances to make the second and third sets easier than they ended up being. And yet, at the same time, he slowly but surely wore Paul down. The American started with a shot-making storm, and the hyper-sonic rallies took both players all over the court. But only one of them was equipped to continue at that altitude for four sets. Paul couldn’t stay up there with Alcaraz, and the errors start to flow—51 of them by the end, compared to just 21 winners.

“I feel like he kind of kept the level, and mine kind of dropped off a bit,” Paul said. “He played pretty well there in the last couple sets. He kind of dictated the points and ended up dictating the outcome.”

“It wasn’t a fun situation.”

When he starts building energy and building momentum, I don’t know, it feels a little bit different than most of the other guys. He can play some seriously amazing, amazing tennis. —Tommy Paul on Carlos Alcaraz

Asked what separates Alcaraz from other top guys, Paul thought for a second and said this:

“When he starts building energy and building momentum, I don’t know, it feels a little bit different than most of the other guys. He can play some seriously amazing, amazing tennis.”

“Half of the job when you’re out there is not to let him win one of those crazy points because when he does, he kind of gets on a roll.”

One thing that seems unique about Alcaraz is how little any individual mistake or miscalculation he makes seems to matter in the end. He can commit a series of wild errors, go for way too much at the wrong time, hit the ball 10 feet long, get broken a couple times in a row, drop his level for a set or even two sets, and then put his game back together and make it look like victory was never in doubt. As he says, he knows a five-set match is a “really long journey,” and the best way to get where you want to go is to smile through the tough moments and keep swinging.

Maybe, as Paul says, the force of Alcaraz’s athleticism impacts and overwhelms his opponents, to the point where he can miss certain shots without making the other guy feel like he has any more of a chance than he did before.

So far in Alcaraz’s career, his speed and shot-making have been his calling cards; when he’s even close to being on, nobody can match them. But at Roland Garros and Wimbledon this year, it has been Alcaraz’s belief in himself, even when he’s missing and looking confused for long stretches, that has been his most important and impressive asset. Commentators talk about how he has an “extra gear.” I’d say instead that he has an ability to downshift at the right time. Much like Serena Williams, he can find his range even after it looks like he’s lost it, and find his top level when he has no other choice.

“When I’m not playing my best tennis, I’m going to try to find solutions just to be a bit better, just to beat the opponent,” he says.

Alcaraz’s next opponent, Daniil Medvedev, will likely take him on a more arduous journey than Paul did. The Spaniard won their semifinal here last year in a blowout. Today he said that he’s hoping for a similar result on Thursday.

Like a man who knows something we don’t know, Alcaraz never stopped smiling as he said it.