Carlos Alcaraz Garfia, the Prodigy, made world number one and won his first 'Slam title at 19 years old. Spaniard grew up with a poster of Roger Federer on his wall and it shows in his highly offensive game. Loves to "give a good show". Style is a hybrid of Fed & compatriot mentor Rafael Nadal. Photos (c)jfawcette from multiple Indian Wells BNP Paribas Open events including 2023 when he won the title. Please either scroll down or click the first image to enter. But you have to scroll to reach the stop motion video of his serve that follows the photo grid. Updated May 19, 2026.
Is Carlos fast? Is the Pope from Chicago? Light itself has trouble keeping up with Alcaraz. Or, so it seems in my photo-illustration with a little help from Photoshop and a bunch of stretching and deforming.
Carlos and Jannik Sinner have two of the best forehands ever on the ATP but their techniques differ. Carlos emulates his idol Federer's straight-arm forehand with a somewhat conservative grip, while Jannik uses the bent-arm forehand that dominates on tour, with a severe Western grip. Biomechanics experts say the straight-arm has some small advantages in efficient power but has to be fit further out front with less margin for error. Hey, it was good enough for the likes of Fed, Rafa, and Juan Martin del Potro.
A tremendous mover, perhaps the fastest on tour today, Carlos here slides hard into a short backhand in his doubles alley near the net, yet gets it up and down for a severely-angled winner. Hard on his Nike Vapor shoes, tho. Photo geek stuff: This is from the same file on my Nikon Z9 camera as the second shot near the top. Not only was that shot cropped more tightly but I left more of the sunset's yellow in that one, since it was mainly on him, not tinting the whole image. I also upscaled the resolution in Photoshop since I made a large metal print of the tight crop. From BNP Indian Wells semifinal vs Jannik Sinner.
