THE CARLOS ALCARAZ EFFECT

The power of Carlos Alcaraz is not just in the stinging velocity and outrageous variety of his shotmaking or the extra muscle added to a tweaked service motion with the help of a heavier racquet, but in the irresistible star power he brings to the court and the sport.

Exhibit A: at last year’s Australian Open, when the young Spaniard was upstaged in the quarter-finals by Alexander Zverev, the dynamic pricing for a seat at the men’s final that had surged to A$5999 on Ticketmaster immediately plummeted back towards face value.

Never mind that those still in the men’s draw included eventual champion Jannik Sinner, the colourful three-time finalist Daniil Medvedev and most notably, by far, a chap named Novak Djokovic who was attempting to win singles major No.25.

Call it The Carlos Alcaraz Effect.

"He’s the biggest star in the game - and it’s not like I don’t love Novak or Sinner. We’re so lucky to have Novak in the game, and Sinner is doing everything right," says experienced tournament director Peter Johnston, who called the last set of Alcaraz’s second-round spanking of Yoshihito Nishioka on Margaret Court Arena.

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As Alcaraz left the venue of his first two matches, his preference for day fixtures and a location in the same half of the draw as Djokovic and No.2 seed Zverev combining to delay his entry onto Rod Laver Arena until Friday’s four-setter against Nuno Borges, Johnston noted his cheery salute to the packed house.

"I said at the end, 'well, say goodbye to Margaret Court Arena, Carlos, because you’ll never be back on here again. Ever'," Johnston told The First Serve.

"He’s box office all round: his style of game, the way he approaches it, his four grand slams at 21, going for the career Slam.

"When he’s walking around, it looks like he’s got extra springs in his legs. He smiles everywhere he goes. The way he carries himself, right down to the post-match interviews, he has such an aura about him on and off the court, and that’s what I find just so engaging.

"So there’s nothing missing, and there’s 10 or 12 years to go."

Before the Nishioka match, British commentator Mark Petchey declared: "Some players play the game, some change the game, and that’s the sense of this phenomenal 21-year-old, looking already to do the career Grand Slam here before his 22nd birthday. The statistics are just remarkable, the quality of his tennis is just sensational and his personality is en pointe.

"Already, thousands, if not millions, of eyeballs have gravitated towards tennis because of the way Alcaraz has taken the stage."

Petchey has spoken previously of his near-disbelief that another "generational talent" had come along so quickly after the all-time greats who dominated for decades, adding: "This is a player who can carry the tour on his own for 20 years."

Pat Cash says he has never seen a player so complete at just 21, having first met the polite young man from Murcia on the Challenger Tour back in 2020. "I didn’t know if he’d be any good because you don’t really know at that stage," Cash recalls, although there was something special nevertheless.

So now we know. Four singles majors including two Wimbledons. Already the youngest-ever men’s No.1 (at 19, after winning the 2022 US Open). Four matches away from the first Australian title that would mean he edges out Don Budge (22 years old in 1938) as the youngest of the nine men to complete a career Slam.

All bulging biceps in muscle shirt, buzz cut, charmingly disarming English and toothy grin, Alcaraz is already the world’s highest-paid tennis player, according to Forbes’ annual list of tennis earners: an estimated A$68.1 million in the 12 months to last September, including over A$50 million in endorsements from sponsors including Nike, Rolex and BMW.

With Djokovic and Sinner, he is among the top three in global interview requests received by the ATP, and has joked on court that, yes, OK, maybe he has installed a few more mirrors at home in Alicante to admire that intimidatingly muscular physique. While pledging to add a kangaroo to his Grand Slam tattoo collection if he salutes on Sunday week.

Before the Nishioka match, locker-room cameras showed Alcaraz warmly hugging each member of his team, then smiling and greeting almost everyone in his path on the way to MCA. A fond farewell, indeed.

"I just love the way Alcaraz goes about it," Lleyton Hewitt, not one noted for his flamboyance or front-of-house charm, said on Nine’s commentary on Friday.

"He’s just so happy out on the court the whole time. He’s enjoying himself. He’s willing to try different things - I think purely the enjoyment factor of testing himself out there and seeing how good he can actually be at everything.

"But that’s how he is in the locker-room as well. He’s so relaxed and calm and he takes it all in his stride."

If anything, according to Cash and others, the third seed has perhaps too many options.

"Sometimes I’ve wondered whether his flair and his ability to play all sorts of different shots and finish points in different ways occasionally in a match might hurt him because he tries so many different things," says John Fitzgerald. "But it makes him a joy, maybe more than anyone else to watch."

Former top-tenner and Australian Davis Cup captain Wally Masur echoes Djokovic’s sentiments that Alcaraz is almost an amalgam of the Big Four.

"His blue sky to me is the best. It’s just phenomenal. There’s nothing he can’t do," says Masur, who was courtside last year for the near-perfect match Alcaraz played against Miomir Kecmanović and the slight head-scratcher that followed against Zverev.

"I was just watching it going 'Carlos, you need a little bit of Rafa right now. The clinic that you put on against Kecmanovic is not there today. Today you need to dig a little deeper and go into your toolbox'," Masur recalls in a phone chat from Sydney.

"But he wasn’t prepared to, and he’s got this big game, and he was trying to find it, but he couldn't find it, so I think he’s got so much going in his game and at the back of his mind he’s got his best match as his blueprint, and he strives for it.

"But people tell me that’s how Laver played and that’s why Laver was so great because he never compromised. With Alcaraz, it was almost like he was putting on a show, and enjoyed putting on the show, but sometimes you’ve just got to find a way to win."

Add dynamic, explosive movement, a topspin forehand that averages over 300 rpms and an ongoing quest for improvement - notably the serve - under long-time coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, and Masur agrees no-one is bigger box office than Alcaraz at his best.

Except perhaps a certain Mr Kyrgios from Canberra.

Masur: "A fit Nick in full flight, there’s always something going on there."

In Charlotte, North Carolina, last month, The Alcaraz Effect was on show in what former world No.1 Andy Roddick dubbed "the week of Carlos".

The non-tennis town that Roddick now calls home hosted an exhibition before a sellout crowd of over 16,000 headlined by the Spanish visitor against Frances Tiafoe.

"Carlos was pitch perfect. With every person," Roddick said on his Served podcast.

Sure, he added, Alcaraz was there for the money, but without acting like it. Instead, as the surest bet for any promoter, this was "next-level talent… doing it all with a sneaky smile on his face", and bringing everyone along for the ride.

Roddick believes Alcaraz is less of a "machine" than the pleasant and supremely talented but more robotic Sinner, with a playing style based more on feel and emotion and as a natural performer who brings a theatrical element to the court.

Indeed, the pair hung out for an hour or so before the match in Charlotte, giving Roddick an insight into the young champion’s mindset.

"I think he’s fully aware of what he is now: he’s one of the biggest global sports stars we have," the American said. "He’s the celebrity in the room amongst sports celebrities in most rooms that he’s in now. I think people are thirsty to see him, thirsty to watch him.

"Expectations couldn’t be more outsized. He’s one of the biggest global superstars - not in tennis, but in anything. Everyone wants to be around him."

And why not? After playing every shot from tweeners to bludgeoned forehands to silky drop shots that John Fitzgerald likens to "playing like he’s handling his grandma’s china", Alcaraz articulated a key to his tennis philosophy.

"I’m trying to play different tennis, showing different kind of shots," he said ahead of Sunday’s fourth-round against 15th seed Jack Draper.

"That’s what makes me enjoy playing tennis, what makes me smile on the court, helps me to show really good tennis and try to entertain the people as well."

If that all sounds like the ingredients for a fan magnet, then the youngest-ever Australian titleholder, the great Ken Rosewall, has slightly qualified enthusiasm.

"I don’t have any current favourite now that Federer’s retired," Rosewall quipped ahead of his Sunday arrival in Melbourne. "I follow the Australian boys more than anybody else.

"I’ve never met Alcaraz, but I think he’s a marvellous young player to have done already what he’s done, winning majors and so on. His game is pretty versatile, so if he stays injury-free, he’s going have a good record."

Which is a beaut bit of Aussie understatement. Regarding a young tennis player whose record and impact are already off the charts.

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