Emma Raducanu‘s former coach Mark Petchey believes tennis has its very own version of basketball great Michael Jordan. A new generation has emerged over the last few years following the exits of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Novak Djokovic is the only member of the Big Three still playing, but the Serb appears to be nearing the end of his career.
He has not won a Grand Slam in over two years and is clearly on the decline in spite of his best efforts to keep up. It has left the door open for Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner to dominate proceedings, having faced each other in this year’s French Open, Wimbledon and Australian Open finals. Alcaraz has emerged victorious on two occasions with Sinner winning at SW19.
Petchey, who coached Raducanu until they parted ways due to his other commitments, believes Alcaraz has the power to transcend the sport in a similar way to Jordan at the peak of his NBA career.
Speaking to tennis betting site BetVictor, Petchey said: “You can talk about the greatest of all time statistically and it’s a slam dunk for Novak at the moment.
“But there’ll obviously be a part of that conversation where you take statistics out of it and you talk about gravitational pull from other eye balls that wouldn’t necessarily watch the sport that we talk about.
“Carlos, for me, has that X factor that other people who wouldn’t necessarily want to watch tennis want to watch him. We talk about people never being bigger than the sport and obviously that is very true.
“The sport will always survive, it will always regenerate. But within the golden times of any sport, there is a particular star icon that was a part of that era.
“You had it with Jordan in the Nineties with the Bulls. You have it now with Carlos. It’s not to disrespect anybody else, he just has something that people want to come watch.”
Alcaraz has certainly been living like a superstar, with the Spaniard celebrating his US Open triumph by partying at an exclusive club in New York.
He visited Chez Margaux, a members-only venue frequented by high-profile celebrities such as Taylor Swift. Membership costs £2,200 per year with an additional joining fee of £1,480 for those under the age of 30, if their application is approved.
Alcaraz is also thought to be dating Brooks Nader, a swimsuit model who previously appeared on Dancing With The Stars. She was spotted watching him at the US Open and her sister has confirmed they are romantically involved.
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