Andy Roddick has stepped up to support Carlos Alcaraz following the Spaniard’s defeat in the semifinals of the 2024 Argentina Open.
Alcaraz faced a challenging start to his campaign in Buenos Aires, securing his first win against Camilo Ugo Carabelli with some difficulty. Despite a 6-2, 7-5 victory, Alcaraz struggled on serve, losing it four times and fending off nine break points. Although he created 18 break-point opportunities, he could only convert seven.
In the quarterfinals, Alcaraz overcame Italy’s Andrea Vavassori with a 7-6(1), 6-1 triumph, albeit with some drama in the opening set tiebreak. However, his title defense came to an end with a 7-6(2), 6-3 loss to Nicolas Jarry in the semifinals.
Discussing Carlos Alcaraz’s performance, Andy Roddick dissected the matches with tennis journalist Jon Wertheim on the latest episode of the Served with Andy Roddick Podcast.
“Alcaraz played, I thought, two pretty ordinary matches that he won. Weird errors at times, you know, trying different things, going in and out of strategies. It felt like he was searching a little bit and then Jarry kind of just took it to him, and he took an uncharacteristic loss,” Roddick commented.
Roddick also addressed the negative opinions surrounding Carlos Alcaraz’s future and the comparisons with Jannik Sinner. Defending the two-time Grand Slam champion, he stated:
“I’m reading comments, and it’s, you know, ‘Sinner’s never going to lose again’, and ‘Alcaraz isn’t what we thought’. And I just think all of that commentary, Sinner is Sinner, he’s awesome. But because he’s playing well doesn’t mean that Alcaraz is never going to play great again. It’s kind of dumb to look at his resume and then freak out over a loss somewhere.”
