Some time during the late 20th century, an administrator at a hunting club in the hill village of El Palmar, in the Murcia region of Spain, decided to install a tennis court at the site. Hard courts may have been cheaper, but the Spanish love the red stuff.
His son would go on to have a short career before becoming a coach on the same courts, and by the time his grandson, the third generation in a lineage of tennis-mad men, began to show promise as a junior competitor skimping and sliding on clay, coaches and onlookers saw it as a sign of providence – that this was going to be the next big clay-courter to come out of a country that has famously provided so many.
On Sunday, Carlos Alcaraz would confirm their telling. In a tense, patchy, low-quality grind on a windy afternoon on Court Philippe Chatrier, the 21-year-old defeated the German fourth seed Alexander Zverev 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 to lift his first French Open title. He becomes the seventh Spaniard in the Open Era to lift the Roland Garros trophy.
CARLOS I, PRINCE OF CLAY 👑#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/lZWMplAmYK
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 9, 2024
In doing so, he also saved the tournament organisers the blushes of handing over the ‘Musketeers Trophy’ to a man embroiled in a legal case of domestic abuse during the course of the tournament.
“I call us a team, but it’s a family,” Alcaraz said on court in acknowledgement of the tough preparations for the tournament due to an arm injury.
A special mention was made for the efforts of his family: “(I remember) Running when I finished school to put the TV on, just to watch the tournament on TV, and now I’m lifting the trophy in front of all of you.”
Outpacing expectations
Alcaraz’s meteoric rise over the last two years has outpaced even sky-high expectations – with a third Major, he has become the youngest player to win Grand Slams on all surfaces – but this is the tournament where it was supposed to come together. The surface he has cherished through his upbringing, where his deft play, big forehand and athleticism all combine to be at their best.
Yet, Sunday’s final would not see much of those weapons. The unusual scoreline is kind to a contest which laboured through its five sets, hardly producing moments of quality, and instead decided on which of the two players could deal with the wild fluctuations of level and seize crucial moments.
Poetry in motion 💫#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/J5w8Ch8oUP
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 9, 2024
For much of this match, Zverev was the better player, as Alcaraz struggled to put a run together. He sprayed a total of 56 errors, quite a few of which came off his frame showing how off his timing had been. His first serve went missing for large parts, especially when under pressure, and tactical adjustments were often needed for him to even stay in the fight.
But the peaks and troughs of best-of-five sets tennis have long been Zverev’s achilles heel. Here is a player that has amassed so many achievements in the shorter format of this sport since he was a teenager, but at 27, has still struggled to make a mark at the Grand Slams. The only previous time he was in a Major final, he was two sets and a break up, before collapsing against Dominic Thiem at the COVID-affected 2020 US Open.
That tendency to be tentative turned up again as he would totally fall away after taking a 2-1 sets lead, allowing Alcaraz to prevail in exchanges even when not at his best.
The moment Carlos Alcaraz won his first Roland-Garros title 🏆🇪🇸#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/a57JqQMJ1O
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 9, 2024
The match kicked off with nerves evident from both sides, as they traded breaks, before Alcaraz used his variety and forehand to take control. The variations on his backhand were also keeping Zverev on his toes and the Spaniard took the first set after fashioning the lead.
Zverev’s level, especially on serve, was bound to rise but just as it did, Alcaraz started falling apart. The German started serving with more precision and power, and brought the measured aggression that has allowed him to take advantage of opponent’s lapses on his route to the final. Alcaraz responded with a total dip.
After dropping the second, there was a surprise when he was able to clutch up and fashion a break to lead 5-2 in the third, and just as he was expected to ride it to a crucial sets lead, he would collapse in a manner that has not been seen in his young career so far, allowing his opponent to stay strong from the baseline and cruise to stealing the set.
But momentum ebbs and flows often in this long-run format, and Zverev’s clear inability to deal with that came to the fore.
After Alcaraz came into the fourth set looking unsure, Zverev would collapse spectacularly, failing to hold serve at all and gifting him the set and all the momentum going into the decider. In the final set, while Alcaraz did lift his level slightly, he was still average on serve, but Zverev dug himself a big hole and lay in it, refusing to come out. The German made 22 of his 41 unforced errors in the final two sets; Alcaraz coasted and escaped with the win.
Perhaps there were signs of maturity on Alcaraz’s part – of realising when the door will open for him to come back, and of lifting his level high enough to take advantage. But surely he and his team will be aware this was a match in which a better, more composed player would have made him pay. Almost certain to return to this stage, he will leave with the glory as well as a few lessons.