Former world No. 5 Jimmy Arias has given his verdict on the peaking best among Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. According to Jimmy the Serb “can’t get to the level that Alcaraz can”, as he showered praised on the Spaniard for embodying the strengths of the Tennis’ Big Three.
Earlier this month, the ATP #1 prevailed against the 23-time Slam conqueror in a five-set blockbuster at SW19, snapping his 34-match win streak at All England Club and ending his hopes of getting leveled with rival Roger Federer and Bjorn Borg’s on winning 5 straight Wimbledon titles.
The Murcia native has now won two Grands with his first one coming against Norwegian Ruud in the New York major last year.
The former US Open semi-finalist who was talking to Tennis Channel’s Inside-In podcast, admitted that Alcaraz’s best level is the highest he has ever seen.
“Before the Wimbledon final, a couple people asked me and I said – and this maybe sounds crazy but – he (Alcaraz) at his best level is better than anybody else. He’s better than Djokovic, Djokovic can’t get to the level that Alcaraz [can],” said the American.
“This is the best level I’ve seen – him at his best. I didn’t know if he was gonna be able to bring it in a Wimbledon final against Djokovic, but I did also know that he’d be more relaxed than he was at the French [Open].
“The French was a strange situation for him because he’s playing a, at the time a 22-time Grand Slam champion, and he’s favourite, by a wide margin. And I thought that was a strange mental hurdle for him.
“In the Wimbledon final, it was the other way. Now Djokovic is favourite and I knew he (Alcaraz) would play relaxed, or I thought he would, but it’s a Wimbledon final.”
Arias expressed his shock over the Spaniard translating skill and tactical prowess of Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer into his game in such a short period.
“(On Djokovic) It’s so strange for me to say that the greatest player of all time’s peak isn’t as good as this kid who is 20 years old. But you watch Alcaraz and I don’t know how he’s done it so quickly. He’s sort of taken the ‘Big Three’ and combined all their strengths and put them into himself,” continued Arias.
“He has sort of the offensive weapons of Federer, he’s got the heart of Nadal from what we’ve seen. I mean, how does he serve out the final game at Wimbledon, with playing Djokovic? He made every first serve and Djokovic only missed one return and it still didn’t faze him in any way.”