Alcaraz’s drop shot: When audacity meets playfulness and embarrasses legends

Not since Michael Chang’s underarm serve to Ivan Lendl has cheekiness on red clay been as celebrated as this past month. Spanish teen sensation Carlos Alcaraz has made a habit of stunning world tennis’ leading lights with his well-disguised delicate drop shots.

Among those who have scampered up the court in a hurry, only to see the ball float across the net, land inside the service box, bounce a couple of times and roll under their racquets are Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev. Gymnast-like flexibility, well-sculpted sprinter’s legs or those long jumper’s limbs haven’t helped them reach the balls that seem to mysteriously lose bounce on crossing the net.

At times, when Alcaraz has decided to dramatically drop the pace of his stroke, even the game’s best hustler, aka Nadal, and the ultimate retriever, read Djokovic, have frozen on the baseline, uncharacteristically giving up on the point. Years on court have refined their judgement, the minds of the masters are programmed to quickly calculate the probability of them taking the ball at one bounce.

This last week in Madrid, there have been points in a rally when after watching the lazily floating ball from the other side, Djokovic and Nadal have realised the futility of their journey up to the net. Instead of sprinting ahead, as they have done for decades now, they put their head down and gulped down the embarrassment in the din of the crowd applauding the audacity of young Alcaraz.

Pundits speak about a combination of reasons that helps Alcaraz to fox the fastest and sharpest of tennis players with his surprise drop shots. The growing reputation of his blistering shots that hit the lines, his early aggression in matches and the last split-second change of shape and grip to pull off the well-disguised shot have conspired to psyche opponents. It has also made the 19-year-old break records, beat legends and be counted among the favourites for the French Open starting later this month.

Such is the strength, and the dread, of his monstrous strikes that the rivals spent most of the match well behind the baseline. And since there are no obvious clues to the drop shots he conjures, it is tough even for the likes of Djokovic and Nadal to read them.