Monte Carlo takeaways: Alcaraz wins by playing for himself, one-handed backhands hold firm

It’s fitting that Roland Garros, the Grand Slam event that requires the most patience and fitness, would also have the longest pre-tournament itinerary. For the King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, the road to the throne was this simple: Kick it off in Monte Carlo and play like gangbusters all the way to the close of business in Paris. Many a year, for example, Nadal would tear his way through Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid and Rome, all preludes to yet another title run at Roland Garros.

For others, the proper calibration of effort and output, fitness and freshness, is less certain, the path to Paris lined with many challenging venues and opponents. With the first big event of this epic swing, the Monte Carlo Masters, now in the books, here are a few early clay season plot lines worthy of attention.

Once Again, Carlos Alcaraz Revealed Why He’s a Generational Talent

Over the course of one week in Monte Carlo, Alcaraz lost the first set in three of his five victories, including the opener of the final versus an inspired Lorenzo Musetti. But, swiftly overcoming these slow starts, Alcaraz by Sunday night had earned his 18^th career title.

Over recent months, amid a few surprising losses, Alcaraz’s approach to tennis has been extensively dissected. His post-finals press conference revealed a desire to tune out those voices. “So I just realized that I don't have to think about all they talking about and just focus on myself,” he said. “So I'm not gonna say I just proved them, that they're wrong, but I just really happy to be able to refocus the important things and just be focused on myself and the part that I have to follow with my team, with my close people, and just playing for myself. So I'm just really happy that I was able to do it.”

To analyze Alcaraz requires new levels of understanding. Akin to such athletic geniuses as basketball star Steph Curry, hockey legend Sidney Crosby, and football great Patrick Mahomes, Alcaraz is a generational talent—someone who has tremendously expanded the dimensions of how his sport is played. With that in mind, my thoughts on Alcaraz’s often distinct and seemingly adventurous choices when it comes to shot selection: In the spirit of Curry’s three-pointers, it’s not reckless if you own it. Alcaraz has repeatedly proven credible by generating significant results, most notably having earned four majors on three different surfaces before even turning 22. That said, having lost earlier than desired during the Sunshine Swing, Alcaraz’s Monte Carlo run has put him on a good path towards defending his Roland Garros title.

Many Stylists Transforming Clay-Court Tennis

Nadal built his clay court empire from the same foundation laid down by such clay court greats as Bjorn Borg, Guillermo Vilas, Ivan Lendl, Mats Wilander, Thomas Muster, Jim Courier, Sergei Bruguera, and Juan Carlos Ferrero. It was a highly physical model, predicated most of all on the ability to wear down opponents with depth, consistency, and movement. For all the extraordinary shots Nadal frequently came up with, his success, and that for those cited above, was largely built on patterns and predictability. Exhibit A for the prosecution: Nadal’s crosscourt forehand.

There are two ways to overcome this highly reliable playing style. One is to do it better, as Borg did when he repeatedly beat Vilas. Consider ’24 Roland Garros finalist Alexander Zverev a contemporary version, who in his second round loss to Matteo Berrettini came up on the short end of a 48-ball rally. Monte Carlo semifinalist Alex de Minaur—a citizen of both Spain and Australia—plays somewhat similarly, his game based on tremendous footspeed. While less powerful than Zverev, de Minaur has an ability to take time away by hitting the ball early.

Another way to overcome the attrition-based baseliner is to innovate and trot out a wide range of speeds, spins, and shots. Alcaraz, Musetti, Arthur Fils, and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina are just a few of the current crop of stylists who have transformed clay court tennis. While these players can sustain their share of long rallies, they are also eager to explore the dimensions of the court with power and angles, aggression and touch. For these kinds of players, the motto is: Grinding only carries you so far. The time has come to create.

Horrible feeling to play this way, and just sorry for all the people that have to witness this. Novak Djokovic following his Monte Carlo exit

Questions for Novak Djokovic

Given that Djokovic will turn 38 in a month, it shouldn’t be surprising these days to see him exit early at any tournament. In Monte Carlo, Djokovic lost his opening match to Alejandro Tabilo. Afterwards, Djokovic said, “I knew I'm gonna have a tough opponent and I knew I'm gonna probably play pretty bad. But this bad, I didn't expect.” That Djokovic said he knew he’d play poorly makes me wonder if he has a highly troubling injury. As Djokovic pursues a fourth Roland Garros title, will he get in enough match play—say, five matches—prior to showing up in Paris?

One-Handed Backhands

Of Monte Carlo’s eight quarterfinalists, three have one-handed backhands—Musetti, Grigor Dimitrov, Stefanos Tsitsipas. If on the one hand, clay’s high bounces can pose difficulty for one-handers, clay’s slow speed provides more time, perhaps most importantly when returning serve. Let’s see how this plays out over the clay-court season. Or was Monte Carlo merely an outlier?

A New Player-Coach Duo: Andrey Rublev and Marat Safin

The last month had been rough for Andrey Rublev. In Dubai, Indian Wells, and Miami, he’d lost his opening match at each of those events—and all of those defeats came to players ranked no higher than 35. Temperamental as Rublev can be, he’s always assessed himself with candor. So it was, seeking new ideas, just prior to Monte Carlo, Rublev added the mercurial Marat Safin to his team. “It was my feelings. There was no logic, no explanation,” Rublev told Tennis.com's Matt Fitzgerald of his decision to hire a man he's looked up to since childhood. That’s an explanation straight out of Safin’s playbook.

During Safin’s playing career, I was never sure how much he liked tennis. Then again, what do I really know about the motivations of this Hall of Fame inductee who won two singles majors and was ranked number one in the world? For all that, it surely would be fascinating to be a fly on the wall for any conversations—on any topic—between the persistently clear Rublev and the enigmatic Safin. In Monte Carlo, the Rublev played impressively to beat Gael Monfils, then lost to Fils.

Richard Gasquet’s Farewell Tour

A man with another crowd-pleasing one-hander has announced plans to retire following Roland Garros this year. The 38-year-old Gasquet’s career has been a study in expectation and durability. At the age of nine, he was featured on the cover of a French tennis magazine, poised to strike his elegant backhand. The headline read: “The champion that France is waiting for?” That is quite a question to ask of any tennis player, much less a nine-year-old. Gasquet progressed nicely. While still a teenager, he beat Roger Federer in the quarters of Monte Carlo, losing to Nadal in three sets. Two years later, he was a Wimbledon semifinalist. And yet, for all the high hopes France held for Gasquet, he at heart proved more solid than flashy. Gasquet has won 16 ATP Tour singles titles and 22 times reached the round of 16 at a major. Let’s hope this spring he sparkles with a few more backhand winners before at last bidding adieu to pro tennis.

ATP Seeking New CEO

Massimo Calvelli, CEO of the ATP, announced that he will be stepping down in June after just over five years on the job. At this point, what’s to happen next lends itself to far more questions than answers. How far and wide will the ATP search? Given such matters as the PTPA lawsuit and the many conflicting views about how to restructure tennis, is it best to hire someone from inside the game? Or might it be better to hire an executive with experience from an entirely different sector—a different sport, entertainment field, or business? How do ATP board members and players view the organization’s current challenges? And amid this transition, what role will ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi play?