How Carlos Alcaraz has picked up Roger Federer’s legacy

When you’re Carlos Alcaraz, and you’re 22 years old, and you’re No. 1 in the world, and you have six Slams to your name, and you’re 47-2 since early April, and you have a documentary about yourself running on Netflix, who can you possibly go to for career-planning advice? Who can relate?

According to Alcaraz, only one human being really makes sense: Roger. No last name needed.

At the US Open earlier this month, the Spaniard said that he had recently been pondering his future, and how long he might be able to play. “One person,” Alcaraz said, told him the best strategy was not to think too far ahead.

“He told me you have to be focused on the next five years, from here to when I’m 27,” Alcaraz said. “And then, when I get 27, then think about five years more.”

Who was this mysteriously wise figure?

“Who told me was Roger. So I think that’s the best person that he, I mean, he could tell me that, and I will try to follow his words.”

Alcaraz is right to listen to Federer, of course; the man pioneered the ATP’s current age of longevity, and was still making Slam finals at 37. Alcaraz is also right to consider himself in the same class as the Maestro. By his 23rd birthday, in 2004, Federer had won three majors, reached No. 1, and separated himself from the pack. He was the new Face of the Game, a title he wouldn’t relinquish until his retirement nearly two decades later.

Read more: Laver Cup Rewind: Roger Federer plays his last match, alongside Rafael Nadal

He told me you have to be focused on the next five years, from here to when I’m 27, and then, when I get 27, then think about five years more. Carlos Alcaraz on Roger Federer's advice

Since then, Alcaraz and his primary rival, Jannik Sinner, have served as dueling Faces of the Game. With his Open win, his run of brilliance this spring and summer, and his rise back to No. 1, Alcaraz owns that title at the moment. If you go by fan enthusiasm and must-see status, Alcaraz is clearly out in front of everyone else. The last new, young male No. 1 to generate that kind of widespread excitement about tennis was Federer. It was rare to hear an audience, anywhere in the world, not vociferously back the Swiss. The same is true for the Spaniard today.

This week, the two future Hall-of-Famers will meet up in San Francisco. That’s where Alcaraz will join Team Europe for the eighth edition of Laver Cup, a brainchild of Federer and his agent, Tony Godsick. Federer, who was spotted hitting balls at nearby Stanford, will presumably be there as a spectator, though I still wish he had been tapped to replace Bjorn Borg as Europe’s captain. (The event instead chose Yannick Noah, a fine selection who will surely make for a more engaging sideline presence than the mostly speechless Swede.)

📲 🖥️ Watch the 2025 Laver Cup beginning Friday, September 19, on the Tennis Channel app

The idea of Alcaraz and Federer together brings up a question for me: Is it possible to celebrate Alcaraz’s unique youthful genius without forgetting Federer’s? The question came to my mind a few months ago when I heard a general-sports pundit on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption say that Alcaraz was exciting to him because he had never seen an athlete of his caliber in tennis before.

I understood what he meant. Alcaraz is as explosive, as a hitter and mover, as anyone I’ve seen on a court, too, and he’s a master of the spectacular like few others. But part of me also thought: Didn’t we just have Federer? Didn’t we just get done raving about Full Fight Fed and how we’d never seen anything like him?

The rise of a new great player doesn’t have to mean the last one is automatically eclipsed.

With that thought in mind, I looked at some YouTube clips of Federer in his early to mid-20s. These are just a few points of the thousands he played, but his arsenal was similar to Alcaraz’s. He could belt winners from anywhere, curl running passes inside the sidelines, create seemingly impossible angles on the fly. And a shot he hits in the sequence here—where he runs around a lob and flips it back behind him for a winner—is a carbon copy of a celebrated shot that Alcaraz pulled off against Novak Djokovic at Roland Garros two years ago.

Federer was praised as “elegant,” while Alcaraz is typically described as “electric.” And maybe those words account for the difference in how a an ESPN pundit would understand the two players. Federer’s gracefulness—best exemplified by his one-handed backhand—was a throwback to earlier, white-trousered tennis days. Alcaraz’s raw athletic force, loud grunt, and full-throttle two-hander feel more up to date and in your face, and make him seem like someone who could have been a track star or a fast-footed middleweight (if young people still wanted to be boxers).

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Those are accurate distinctions, but Federer and Alcaraz could also veer into each other’s lanes. For all of his elegance, Federer was also a single-minded aggressor who attacked his opponents with his forehand as soon as possible, and could slug with anyone from the baseline. And for all of Alcaraz’s reckless electricity, there’s a balletic quality to the way his feet fly up in the air—even on his serve—and the way he delicately guides his drop shots an inch over the net.

We can’t compare Federer’s and Alcaraz’s achievements yet. The Spaniard may be on track to match or pass Federer’s 20 majors, but as of now, he’s just getting started. At the same time, I do think we’ve seen enough of Alcaraz to know that his best level—his ceiling—is up there with Federer’s.

Tennis has been lucky to have them both in this century. In their turns, and in their own ways, Federer and Alcaraz have advanced the sport while bringing new and passionate fans to it.

We can say we’ve never seen anyone like Alcaraz, without forgetting that, 20 years ago, we’d never seen anything like Federer, either.