“I love watching him (Carlos Alcaraz) play. He hits a shot and he’s like ‘Woah,’ and the fans are like ‘Woah,’ and he’s like ‘Wow, I hit that’. He’s so exciting.” – Tracy Austin said this before the 2024 US Open. In fact, she had even picked the Spaniard as the probable winner for this year’s major tournament in NY! Her predictions were proved wrong by Jannik Sinner, but so what? This 61-year-old American former world number one’s love and admiration for Carlitos didn’t end there!

Recently, Tracy Austin appeared on the Tennis Channel for a conversation about the eight top players who are going to be featured at the year-end championships in Turin. During the conversation, both Austin and renowned tennis journalist Jon Wertheim were asked to pick a name among these players who they think have the best skills. For example, when Tracy Austin was asked to name the player with the best offensive skill, she said, “To me, it’s Alcaraz. I think of him as kind of a swashbuckler and he’s so aggressive.” Then again, when asked to pick one with the best defensive skills, her answer was the same.

Austin said, “The guy (Alcaraz) is a speedster, I think he’s just about the quickest on the Tour. It’s tough to get a winner by him.” What about bringing variation to the game? Who has got more variety in their playing styles? Well, interestingly even here her answer was, “You know I’ve got Alcaraz there, too. I seem to be in love with Carlos. But serve and volley, he can hit huge power. Push him back. The best drop shot in the game. So, drop shot for me! Forward, he’s got the backhand slice. He can lift the ball for spin“

She further added that even Jannik Sinner has a lot of variety in his game. He pointed out his performance at the US Open final where he literally used every part of the Court to irritate Taylo Fritz with some low slices. Despite highlighting Sinner’s heroics at the US Open, Tracy Austin has picked Carlos Alcaraz in most of the fields during this conversation. However, this isn’t the first time that she has portrayed her admiration for this Spanish superstar!

In 2022, during an interview, Tracy Austin praised Carlos Alcaraz’s skills, especially for acquiring such a champion mentality at a young age. “Carlos already has a champion mentality. He wants to take the field and raise his level of play, regardless of who is on the other side of the net,” said Austin at that time. Even after watching the 2024 Wimbledon Championships final, we heard Austin say, “Sometimes it seemed like he was, I don’t know, toying with Novak. It was just so good. You’re scratching your head like, ‘Now you’re taking tennis to another level.’” Even before the final match, Austin was surprised to see how calm and composed this youngster looked, and here’s the story she had shared at that time.

Tracy Austin is impressed with Carlos Alcaraz’s ability to stay calm even in the most pressurized moments

During a previous conversation at the Tennis Channel, Tracy Austin gave an insight that she had heard from her husband. Elaborating on that epic moment, Austin added, “I will give you a little insight, my husband was there, and the morning of [the final] he was on this grass balcony above and Carlos was going to be on court 14…Carlos was walking around, kind of in between where the players’ tee is and Centre Court, and my husband shouted ‘come on Carlos’ and he looked up and he waved and it looked like he was so relaxed.“

She explained how most people would be so tight at that moment, going to warm up to play a Wimbledon final, but that wasn’t the case for the Spaniard. Austin loves how Carlos Alcaraz represents himself to everyone around him. “He seems very grounded. I love that,” said Austin. Is Austin the only one who has been heaping praise on Carlos Alcaraz in the last few days? Well, recently another tennis legend, Tommy Haas was spotted heaping praise on the Spaniard during his interview with Tennis Magazine on November 4, 2024.

The German said, “Carlos Alcaraz is the player I like to watch the most. Carlos has the most attractive game at the moment. Sometimes he only loses because he has too many options.” With the ATP Finals knocking at the door, both Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have now started to take control of the stage! We saw Novak Djokovic win this title in 2023, but unfortunately for the Nole fans, he won’t feature in this iconic tournament this year. So, who according to you is most likely to win this title this year?