Carlos Alcaraz snubbed Rafael Nadal when asked to name the greatest tennis player of all time (GOAT), instead picking Novak Djokovic for his ‘numbers’.
Alcaraz and Nadal are playing Olympic doubles together in Paris with the clay-court event getting underway on July 27 as they look to clinch gold for Spain.
Nadal, 38, lauded his Spanish compatriot Alcaraz, 21, after the world No.3 beat Djokovic to secure the Wimbledon title for the second year in a row last week.
Alcaraz, though, who adores Nadal and firmly sees him as one of his biggest sporting heroes, has admitted that Djokovic has passed him as the tennis GOAT.
The four-time major winner was asked a series of questions in a video posted by the ATP Tour on Friday, with one focused on who is the greatest player of all time.
Alcaraz looked uncomfortable at the question and the ATP Tour clip joked that he ‘panicked’ with the interviewer, Sharky, then insisting that he ‘needed an answer’.
‘As far as numbers, it’s Novak Djokovic,’ Alcaraz said, referencing the fact that the Serbian has won two more Grand Slam singles titles (24) than his hero Nadal.
Alcaraz must have felt bad at his own assessment as he then added: ‘The other two… [Roger] Federer and Rafa [Nadal]… for me they’re tops [too].’
Nadal is currently partnered with Casper Ruud for the Swedish Open as he gears up for the Olympic tennis tournament in Paris and the Norwegian, who also worships the ‘King of Clay’, teased Alcaraz for ‘partying’ on Wednesday.
Nadal, meanwhile, feels Alcaraz will go on to become one of the best players in history if the youngster manages to avoid significant injury issues in his career.
‘My impression is that we are talking about a player who is going to be one of the best in history,’ Nadal said about Alcaraz this week. ‘That is my feeling.
‘He is a player with great potential. Life can change quickly, that’s the truth. You never know what can happen in the future. But today if we have to predict what is happening in his career, we predict incredible things.
‘His level of tennis is super high. If he is able to stay away from injuries, of course Jannik Sinner is there. But today I see him with Sinner above the rest without any doubt.
‘I don’t see many players who can stop him on the Tour and I think the best thing he has today is that in every tournament he plays, no matter the surface, he is going to be the favourite.’
Nadal is adamant that Alcaraz is different to the Big Three and has an ‘aura’ of being a favourite for every tournament he now enters, even at the age of just 21.
He feels that is not the same as the Big Three era, because he was dominant on clay, but Roger Federer was the king of grass while the Swiss legend and Djokovic shared the hard courts.
‘No [one] player was the favourite before each tournament [in my era] and today I feel that he has that aura, that feeling,’ Nadal added. ‘That’s a big advantage because I think he feels that [if] he’s playing at his level [that] it’s hard for anyone to beat him.’
Alcaraz has remarkably already tasted major glory on all three surfaces with triumphs at the 2022 US Open, 2024 French Open and back-to-back Wimbledon titles in the last two years.