{"id":143271,"date":"2025-09-09T05:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T05:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/143271\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T05:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T05:01:09","slug":"former-american-player-says-if-he-thinks-carlos-alcaraz-would-now-beat-prime-rafael-nadal-at-the-us-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/143271\/","title":{"rendered":"Former American player says if he thinks Carlos Alcaraz would now beat prime Rafael Nadal at the US Open"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Carlos Alcaraz is back on top of men\u2019s tennis after reclaiming the position of world number one following his US Open triumph. <\/p>\n

Having dropped just one set and three service games in his campaign at Flushing Meadows, Alcaraz is now a six-time major champion<\/a>, equalling the tallies of Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg. <\/p>\n

The Spaniard has also matched his compatriot, Rafael Nadal<\/a>, in Grand Slams won before turning 23 years old. <\/p>\n

Alcaraz<\/a>, still just 22, has already carved out a legendary career, and many are now comparing the two-time US Open champion to the \u2018big three\u2019, including Jimmy Connors\u2019 former doubles partner Spencer Segura, who had high praise for the young star after the final. <\/p>\n

\"CarlosPhoto by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU\/AFP via Getty ImagesSpencer Segura compares Carlos Alcaraz to Rafael Nadal<\/p>\n

Speaking on \u2018Advantage Connors\u2019, Segura said: \u201cNow I am going to say something crazy. I think the way Alcaraz plays today, I don\u2019t think Nadal would beat him on this court. I don\u2019t see it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see how he would be able to take that pace any better. Sinner has deeper hit ground strokes than Nadal.<\/p>\n

\u201cNadal is the greatest of all time of the grinders. He hits the ball up high on the forehand, sets you up and pulls you off the court. He has a great backhand and his backhand is more flat.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I see Alcaraz being able to take advantage of the early ball on him, just as Djokovic did to some extent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were very close, Alcaraz and Djokovic, but this kid maybe has more guns to hurt Nadal. I would also take him over Federer, to give you an outrageous statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is Federer better? He has no backhand compared to him. He has a great serve and forehand and he\u2019s a great athlete, but I don\u2019t see what is better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Djokovic is the closest to him. If Djokovic serves well, he is the one who could stay. He also hugs the baseline, he doesn\u2019t go way forward or back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem with Djokovic is he doesn\u2019t serve well; he has these bouts where he serves great, but his second serve would get hurt by this kid. I think this kid is one of the best I have ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CarlosPhoto by Sarah Stier\/Getty ImagesCarlos Alcaraz\u2019s record against the \u2018big three\u2019 at tour-level events<\/p>\n

Though Alcaraz never faced Roger Federer<\/a> on the ATP<\/a> Tour, he has had several bouts with both Nadal and Novak Djokovic<\/a>. <\/p>\n

He has a losing record against Djokovic, trailing 5-4 in their head-to-head, but emerged victorious over the Serb in their most recent meeting at the US Open.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz played Nadal three times early on in his career, and lost their first two clashes at the 2021 Madrid Open, and the 2022 Indian Wells Open. <\/p>\n

After his loss in Indian Wells, later that year, he beat his countryman in the Spanish capital in three sets. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz is back on top of men\u2019s tennis after reclaiming the position of world number one following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[2073,813,99,428,11883],"class_list":{"0":"post-143271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","9":"tag-rafael-nadal","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-us-open"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}