He battled a forearm injury the past month, only playing in Madrid ahead of the French Open, and even there, he was extremely limited in what he could accomplish. Some observers who know a thing or two about Alcaraz predicted before the tournament that he would likely not go all out initially due to the forearm difficulties that plagued him in the past.
It did look that way as the two-time major winner played well, but we didn’t really see the lethal forehand in full impact. It appeared against Korda, though, notably on a crucial set point in the second set tie-break, when the Spaniard destroyed a forehand to win the set.
After the match, he verified that he was hitting his forehand regularly, which is wonderful news for all fans.
“Today, at some point, I forgot about everything and started to hit my forehand normally. More intensity. In the second set tiebreak I struck two forehands and after that I thought ‘wow. I missed this feeling.”
Alcaraz on shattering his forehand
While it’s excellent news for tennis fans, it’s incredibly bad news for the other players because beating him now becomes much more difficult. Beating him at all is pretty challenging, but with his forehand progressively coming together, it’s going to be maybe even impossible, especially at Roland Garros.
It should be a spectacular see, though, as a completely worry-free Alcaraz might be the most exciting player we’ve ever see at least according to Mats Wilander, who is on the ground in Paris with a front-row ticket to all of that.
