Pat Cash, commentating over Carlos Alcaraz’s marathon win yesterday, has noticed a key change that the Spaniard has made since his French Open title.
In what many expected to be a walkover, the 22-year-old was pushed to the brink by his compatriot in a clash that lasted three and a half hours.
It is the longest best-of-three match that Carlos Alcaraz has played in 2025.
He struggled through the first set, which he won 6-4, but was pegged back in the second as Jaume Munar snatched the tiebreak in one of the best sets of tennis he will ever play.
Then, the two exchanged breaks in the third before the five-time Grand Slam champion finally claimed victory.
Cash, one notable onlooker who was lucky enough to be in attendance, sought to analyse what he saw.
Pat Cash notices Carlos Alcaraz change in Queen’s win over Jaume Munar
Speaking live on the BBC, it was early in the second set when the Aussie first outlined his findings.
As Alcaraz sought to trouble the Munar serve, he strung together two really strong returns that put the 28-year-old on the back foot.
Cash responded: ‘When you look at the grip that Alcaraz has on the return, on the clay court the forehand grip that the players stand with, almost all the players stand with, usually on the clay [they have] much more time. He goes for the block Pete Sampras type [shot].’
Andrew Castle interjected with a quick question, asking if he would change his return grip depending on the surface. Cash replied: ‘It looks like it. It looks like it from here, yes. And I think Sampras did that as well. Just on the forehand.’
Castle had another query, as he posited: ‘So that he can just chip it back because there’s less time?’
This allowed the 1987 Wimbledon champion to finish his analysis by reaffirming his aforementioned legendary comparison: ‘They just block it yeah.
‘With the western grip you have to do more with the wrist and you need a bit more time and on the grass, you just don’t have the time, so it’s a very, very short backswing.’
‘He does change it around a little bit, you see him standing there now. That’s a continental grip. And then he’ll turn it around just about now. A little bit. But he’s normally pretty close to a Western grip, which is if you had put the racket on the ground and you picked it up, that’s sort of Western grip that faces right down. But that’s very open to the player, very clever.’
It’s therefore expected that the grip will likely change again upon the return to hard courts for the end of summer, where Alcaraz will partner Emma Raducanu for the US Open mixed doubles.
Carlos Alcaraz has an insane record on grass
Although his career is still very much in its infancy, the record that this mercurial Spaniard boasts on grass is sensational.
Especially when you consider that, historically, those from his country were never expected to thrive on this surface when their clear favourite was the polar opposite in clay.
And yet, Alcaraz bucks the trend, just as Rafael Nadal did before him.
However, his skillset is arguably even more varied, given the youngster has already matched the number of Wimbledon titles that the 22-time Grand Slam champion managed across his entire career.
Meanwhile, Alcaraz has lost just three grass-court matches thus far since he turned professional; in the 2021 and 2022 editions at Wimbledon and last year at Queen’s to Jack Draper.
