Why is Carlos Alcaraz so great on grass? Spaniard’s dominance revealed as he eyes Wimbledon ‘threepeat’ – and Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic records

Carlos Alcaraz’s record on grass bears repeating.

If that is not generating a shocked emoji, then how about a comparison to arguably the two best grass players in history?

Granted, those two luminaries have played for many more years on grass, but this is supposed to be a surface that takes time to learn, and that is therefore harder at the start of a career.

Not so for Carlitos, who is bidding for his third Wimbledon title in a row, and not just that; if he wins at SW19 he would achieve the wild feat of a French Open-Wimbledon double double – something not done since Bjorn Borg in 1979.

Borg himself went on to win a treble-double – taking home the Roland-Garros and Wimbledon titles in all of 1978, 1979 and 1980 – but even that could be under threat from a charging Alcaraz.

As could the records of Federer – five titles in a row from 2003-2007 and eight overall – and Djokovic, who won four in a row between 2018 and 2022 (the 2020 edition was not held due to the Covid-19 pandemic) as part of his overall seven to date.

Ahead of a hugely anticipated Wimbledon beginning next Monday, June 30, we investigate what makes Alcaraz such a standout player on grass.

Let’s start with something that is perhaps not the first thing you associate with the Spaniard – his defence.

Crucial to his success at Queen’s was his ‘steal score’, defined as ‘how often a player has won the point when they are in defence during the point’.

Data: Tennis Data Innovations

As the data shows, a jump of 9% over his opponent in the final, Jiri Lehecka, highlights one area helping him come out on top in the most important matches.

His ability to somehow craft winners and passing shots from these situations – usually with an adjoining finger to the ear afterwards – goes some way to explaining his greatness on grass.

Now to something altogether more obvious to the naked eye – the Alcaraz forehand.

There have been some monster forehands over the years, with fans able to take their pick from the likes of Federer, Rafael Nadal or Juan Martin del Potro.

And Alcaraz is right up there, with his numbers from Queen’s an improvement on his own 52-week average, and far superior to the tour average.

Data: Tennis Data Innovations

Alcaraz also ranked first among the Queen’s quarter-finalists for forehand conversion, which calculates the percentage of points won when the player has been in attack during the point.

Combine these devastating attacking skills on the forehand side – including a winner count almost double the tour average – with his aforementioned defensive skills, and you can see why opponents quickly run out of ideas against the Spaniard.

Finally, we come to perhaps the most improved facet of Alcaraz’s game: his serve.

Especially vital on grass, Alcaraz has – per TennisViz – increased the amount of second serves he is sending wide, meaning he is making it harder for opponents to get the ball back into court.

The data bears this out, with over a quarter of all his second serves not coming back.

Data: Tennis Data Innovations

The amount of aces Alcaraz is sending down also makes it no surprise that he himself said after his win over Lehecka: “Now I know how (big servers) John Isner and Reilly Opelka feel when they play.”

The likes of Djokovic, Jannik Sinner and Britain’s Jack Draper may have something to say about it, but if Alcaraz plays to his peak at SW19, it is hard to see past him taking a sixth career major – and yet another grass title.