Carlos Alcaraz: Is the King of Queen’s a Wimbledon contender? Premium

The World No. 1 won the prestigious tune-up event at Queen’s Club in only his third tournament on grass. But has the 20-year-old’s grass-court game advanced sufficiently to deal with the threats that lurk on the slippery, naturally wearing surface at the All England Club?

Clay-court specialists of a certain vintage had a pet phrase for the period between Roland Garros and Wimbledon, when they were leaving their beloved dirt and attempting to find their feet on the lush lawns. 

“Grass is for cows,” they would say, repeating an expression reportedly coined by Spain’s Manuel Santana, who ironically won the Wimbledon men’s singles title in 1966. 

It was a line many Spanish players turned to in the 1980s and 90s — and despite Conchita Martinez’s triumph in the women’s singles in 1994, it wasn’t until Rafael Nadal mastered Wimbledon’s Centre Court in 2008 and 2010 that Spanish players began to look at playing on grass as an opportunity and not an obligation. 

Garbine Muguruza’s success in 2017 furthered this belief, and so the idea of a Spanish top seed at Wimbledon is no longer unimaginable. Especially after Wimbledon moved from its grass-weighted seeding formula to a system based solely on the rankings.

Carlos Alcaraz, the men’s No. 1 seed at next week’s Championships, isn’t a clay-court specialist by any means, but he is still discovering his game on grass. 

Before last week’s Queen’s Club Championships, the 20-year-old had played just six matches on the surface — all of them at the All England Club across two Wimbledon appearances.

Alcaraz’s first grass-court match outside Wimbledon proved challenging. He had to fight back from a set down to beat Arthur Rinderknech, a 6’5” Frenchman ranked in the mid-80s.