Carlos Alcaraz brings out his many acrobatic skills in US Open victory over Lloyd Harris

NEW YORK—The British sportswriter Simon Barnes used to describe Roger Federer’s game as a “cooperation,” rather than a confrontation, with the person on the other side of the net.

“He creates the illusion that his opponent is not, in fact, opposing him,” Barnes wrote of the Swiss great. “That his opponent is in fact conspiring with Federer to create these patterns of angle and trajectory, of curves and straight lines, of singing strings.”

On Thursday night at the US Open, Carlos Alcaraz brought Barnes’ words to mind again. For most of their second-round match, Alcaraz and his opponent, Lloyd Harris, seemed to be conspiring to allow the new Spanish master to show off his many acrobatic skills to the 23,000 fans who had filled every row to the very top of Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Alcaraz would chip a backhand into the middle of the court, daring Harris to come in. Then he would wait for Harris’s approach, track it down with one long stride in the corner, and hook a forehand pass that drew a gasp from the audience.

The two players would bat the ball back and forth in a series of rapid-fire volleys, but Harris’s last one would be just within Alcaraz’s reach, giving him a chance to wow the crowd again with a dive-bombing topspin lob.

Harris would hammer a 125-m.p.h. serve, but because it wasn’t placed within an inch of a line, Alcaraz would hammer it back even harder.

Harris would fire an approach straight down the middle of the court, which is a smart play against most opponents, because it doesn’t give them an angle to work with on the passing shot. In this case, though, it just gave Alcaraz a chance to show that he actually could create an angle with his backhand where none seemed to exist.

Until the third set, the two didn’t appear to be going toe-to-toe, or fighting tooth-and-nail. Harris smiled at Alcaraz’s winners, as well as his own—he seemed pleased just to be part of the Carlitos Circus. Harris tried an obligatory but hopeless tweener to give the crowd a thrill. He and Alcaraz smiled back and forth numerous times and slapped racquets after an especially brilliant shot. Harris even apologized to Alcaraz for hitting a ridiculously perfect backhand angle winner. It was as if he was telling him, “Sorry I didn’t give you a chance to make an incredible get and blow the crowd’s mind again.”

While Harris won his opening serving game of the match, it was an ominous start. He made 75 percent of his first serves, but it still took him 10 minutes to hold. Alcaraz punished his kick second serve all night, and Harris couldn’t match the Spaniard’s pace or consistency from the ground.

It wasn’t until the third that the match went from exhibition to competition. Harris went up 4-2, and had two more break points to get to 5-3. But that’s when Alcaraz buckled down and hit an excellent approach and a service winner to steer clear of trouble. Two stats tell the tale of this match: Harris was one for 10 on break points, and nine for 29 on his second serve.

At 4-4 in third-set tiebreaker, Alcaraz kicked it up one final notch. He fired a forehand return winner for 5-4; put a kick serve on the outside of the sideline for 6-4, and rocketed a service winner for the win.

“We make the people enjoy watching tennis,” Alcaraz said afterward, of the cooperative vibe between he and Harris tonight.

This wasn’t his A game, and he’ll likely need to up it for his next match, against Dan Evans. But it was a better, tidier level than he showed for most of Toronto and Cincinnati. Alcaraz has reached the point where many of his opponents are happy just to be on the court with him. As Federer knows, that’s a good place to be.