Patrick Mouratoglou spoke about
Carlos Alcaraz and
Rafael Nadal noting a key difference between the two players and it's how they fit on different surfaces.
Rafael Nadal is known as the king of clay because no player before him dominated the surface as much as he did. The Spaniard came into professional tennis as a force on clay but it took him a few years before he finally started to win on other surfaces. It's different for Alcaraz who was winning on all of them from the start with his maiden grand slam coming on hard courts as well.
That's the key difference for Mouratoglou:
“I think Carlos Alcaraz is an all-court player, I don’t think he is a clay-court player. Rafa is more of a clay court player. He’s an all-court player, but he has learned to be good on other surfaces, but originally, he was really a clay court player, which is not the case for Carlos."
Mouratoglou continued:
"I think he’s an all-court player from the start. He’s good on
hard as on clay, maybe I would give him a little more advantage on clay
than hard because he has some weapons that are deadly on clay. The drop
shot, and he’s a master in drop shots. His kick serve which is one of the best, if not the best, on tour. And his forehand. And of course, he’s an incredible mover. When you put all of this together, I think it gives him even an extra edge on clay compared to hard court."