Mumbai: Carlos Alcaraz brought up a bad tennis thing after displaying his best show in a Grand Slam final — that the sport and its ever-running calendar, at times, makes it difficult “to realise that I won the tournament, to enjoy”.
And so, Alcaraz wants to take a moment.
“To see the trophy, to see what you’ve done in the tournament, to appreciate that,” he said.
He could appreciate what he came up with in the first five games of his 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 US Open final victory against Jannik Sinner: a heady mixture of a slice and drop forehand winner, a retro serve and volley, a delectable drop shot, a backhand half volley lifted from his ankles that slumped across the net. So dazzling was his start and all-court craft that it left the Italian in a daze from which he could never really recover.
He could also appreciate the miserly two-unforced error count in the first and third sets each even while generously dishing out his wizardry.
Yet when he looks back to see what he’s done in the tournament, one feature will stand out in the Spaniard’s sparkling spectacle in New York – the serve.
Alcaraz faced only 10 break points in stitching the fine title run, the least by any man in a Slam. He dropped just 3 of his 101 service games across seven matches, the second fewest by any man since 1991 after Pete Sampras. For context, through his 2022 US Open triumph, he had dropped 22.
“I think the serve was one of the keys to win the tournament, for sure,” said his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero.
It was key to the 22-year-old reclaiming the season-ending Slam and the world No.1 spot to ensure his biggest rival gives up more than just his US Open throne. It was key to him becoming the second youngest man to get to six Slams after Bjorn Borg. It was key to him joining Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Mats Wilander as only the fourth man to win multiple major singles titles on all three surfaces.
Fittingly, Alcaraz put his stamp on all of that with an unreturned first strike to close out the final.
Compared to three seasons ago, as Alcaraz grew from being a one-time Slam winner to a multiple-time champion, his serving numbers on the tour also rose. From winning 85.24% of his service games in 2023, he won 85.47% in 2024 and 87.61% this year so far. His first serve points win percentage went from 72.33% in 2023 to 73.00% in 2024 to 74.28% so far in 2025.
Yet for all his all-round game, the serve wasn’t quite regarded as Alcaraz’s strengths. During last year’s off-season, Alcaraz’s team tweaked the Spaniard’s service motion, loosening the wrist, taking away the pause in lifting the racquet and making it more fluid overall. Work was also done on its movement, making Alcaraz look at spots and angles to place the serve a bit differently.
The changes took shape from this Australian Open, and some time for Alcaraz to adjust.
Less than eight months on, from not being even among the top 20 in the first serve win percentage leaders at the Australian Open, Alcaraz signed off the US Open sitting in second place at 84%, only behind the big-serving Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard who played just one match. As if to second the point, Alcaraz topped the second serve points won chart at 63%.
“We knew we needed some time to get it working on court,” said Ferrero. “This (US Open) maybe is the moment he has improved more in his serve. It’s been very useful on the court. In the important moments, he’s using it a lot, during Cincinnati and the US Open.”
It’s also been very useful in flipping a page to his direction in his rivalry with Sinner and their duopoly dance that has split the four majors among them for two seasons running.
In the Wimbledon final, Sinner edged Alcaraz on the first strike, getting 62% first serves in compared to Alcaraz’s 53% and winning 60% points on the second serve to Alcaraz’s 51% (both won 75% points on the first serve). In the US Open final, Alcaraz edged Sinner, getting 61% first serves in, compared to Sinner’s 48%, winning a high 83% points on the first serve to Sinner’s 69% and 57% on the second to Sinner’s 48%. The Spaniard lost three points on his serve in the first set, and one behind his first serve in the third.
Ahead of their final, Sinner had singled out the serve as Alcaraz’s most significant improvement over the last couple of years. The Italian would soon get another taste of it.
“He was doing everything slightly better today, especially serving,” Sinner said. “Both sides, both swings, very clean.”
Very clean serving, to go with the punishing returns and a pulsating all-round game, made this US Open a sublime Alcaraz spectacle.
“The consistency of my level during the whole tournament has been really really high,” said Alcaraz. “I feel like, from the first round till the end, this is the best tournament I’ve ever played.”
Best tournament, best final, best serving show.
