It can take a while to become embedded in British sporting culture.
According to YouGov, the most famous tennis players in the UK remain: Andy Murray, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova. Lleyton Hewitt, world No 1 in the early 200s, is 11th. Kevin Anderson is 24th.
You will note that for all those names, Wimbledon was the scene of their greatest triumphs. Sharapova won her first slam there, memorably trying (and failing) to call her mother on Centre Court afterwards. Hewitt won one of his two slams in SW19 back in 2002. Eight-time champion Federer is virtually synonymous with the place. Even Anderson, an eminently likeable but otherwise fairly anonymous tour pro from South Africa, reached the final.
It is a testament to the power of free-to-air television – the BBC beams and streams Wimbledon into every home in the country free of charge – and the affection which Britain has for the tournament.
And it is also probably why Carlos Alcaraz, the reigning US Open champion who turned 20 on Friday and was world No 1 as recently as March, does not even feature in the top 30. For all his success, the Spaniard is yet to make it past the fourth round of Wimbledon.
There is an opportunity for him to make his mark this summer. There will be an Emma Raducanu-shaped hole in July’s calendar after she announced this week that she will need four months to recover from hand and ankle injuries. After 18 months in which she has given much-needed oxygen to British tennis, the sport will need another source of sustenance in July.
Hopes that Jack Draper might provide it rely on him recovering from an increasingly troublesome abdominal problem: his last two grand slam campaigns have ended in injury, he has not played for a month and has pulled out of his last three tournaments. So too Andy Murray whose fitness is a constant worry these days and who has not been past the third round since 2017. Nick Kyrgios was supposed to be back from knee surgery in March but is yet to resurface and, after his mother was held at gunpoint during a robbery at their family home this week, you could forgive him for extending his stay at home and missing Wimbledon.
What about the old hands, those who already have the name recognition in most households? Well, Rafael Nadal has not played since January and is expected to play through the pain at Roland Garros – which would probably result in him skipping the major on his least-favourite surface. And Novak Djokovic is starting to suffer from Michael Schumacher syndrome, where the casual viewer assumes he will win and finds little to attract them to the spectacle.
All of which leads us to this conclusion: that 2023 will be the year Carlos Alcaraz becomes Britain’s newest Wimbledon darling.
There are parallels with his fellow countryman Nadal’s journey into the hearts of Joe Public. Back in 2006, British involvement in Wimbledon was over by the fourth round (Murray lost to Marcos Baghdatis in straight sets, Tim Henman had been thrashed by Roger Federer) and England were out of the World Cup (Portugal, penalties, best not to ask). The summer needed saving. Like Alcaraz, a 20-year-old Spaniard with a muscular build and a penchant for a tank top, up stepped Nadal. Also like Alcaraz, he had never shown any propensity for grass-court tennis but he was already a grand slam champion.
Alcaraz also shares a Nadal quality that is less tangible, one of on-court charisma. When Nadal sprints from the net to the back of the court before the warm-up, the crowd roars in appreciation. Anyone who has watched it knows the intensity even that tiny moment provides, yet few can explain why. Alcaraz has not adopted the pre-match routine, but he takes the crowd with him in the same way. His athleticism, his ferocity and his dropshots demand your attention. Like Freddie Flintoff, he empties the bars; you don’t want to miss a second.
He will need to learn the ways of the grass though. It is not so tall a task as it once was. The courts are so firm and well-manicured these days that it is no longer even the fastest grand slam surface by some measures. Last year, he won three matches on it before running into Jannik Sinner, and his gamestyle would appear to suit it: when his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero spoke to i about Alcaraz three years ago, he likened him to Federer because of his big forehand – and the Swiss has gone alright on the grass.
This country of course is not the be-all, end-all, even if this particular weekend of British exceptionalism might suggest otherwise. Alcaraz is already a global star with 2.3 million Instagram followers and $14m of career prize money. But endearing yourself to the British public never hurts, and with Raducanu in plaster, they are crying out for a new star.
