'I never in my wildest dreams': Former world number one confesses being 'very jealous' of Carlos Alcaraz's 'damn smile' in rare admission

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz has a lot of admirers in the world of tennis because of his incredible performances on the court and his ability to produce the goods under pressure. It is widely perceived that Alcaraz is the most popular player in men’s tennis and is the biggest crowd puller in sport.

Alcaraz has now received another endorsement, this time by another former world number one. John McEnroe has recently spoken to the Tennis Channel during the Laver Cup transmission, where he was full of praise for the 22-year-old.

McEnroe stated that he had never seen a more ‘complete’ player than Alcaraz at the age of 22. McEnroe said that when he was watching the likes of the original ‘Big Three’, he never thought that he would say something like this about another player, that too, so soon. McEnroe also stated that he is ‘very jealous’ of the way Alcaraz has a smile while on the court.

“Yeah. No, I mean, it's really, I've watched Santos for 50 years, you know, longer in a way. And obviously we went through a period just, I mean, I idolised Rod,” said McEnroe. “I just said that I got to play against Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, Yvonne Leno, my three greatest rivals. Along came these nobodies. What's their name? Becker, Edberg, Agassi, Sampras, you're like, oh my God, this is amazing. And then to top it off, you get Roger, Rafa, and Novak. And you're like, I'm looking at the three greatest players that ever lived. And suddenly, somehow, along comes this other guy from Spain. I remember seeing him, he was probably 17. Hey, this guy's got some talent, that guy's pretty quick out there. I never in my wildest dreams, I'll tell you, of all the players I've ever watched at this age, I've never seen a player this good, this complete. The last two, three years. And with that damn smile that you have, I'm very jealous of that, okay?”

McEnroe urges youngsters to learn from Alcaraz 

McEnroe also urged the youngsters to look at how Alcaraz has been able to produce results on the court, particularly at such a young age. “I'm hoping that they're going to look at Carlos and what he does, and how he loves to be aggressive and move forward, because we lost a lot of that,” said McEnroe. “You don't see the volleying that much. But I think that's going to change because of him. So you talk about a breath of fresh air when we desperately needed it, when we thought, oh my God, what are we going to do? These three guys are finished. You're two quid and Novak looks human all of a sudden. So to have him and Jannik [Sinner] come in, and now the other guy's got to chase and try to catch up, it's really awesome.”

Alcaraz has been in great form this year. Recently, Alcaraz lifted the US Open for the second time in his career after beating his closest opponent, Italy’s Sinner, in the final with a score of 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. The young Spaniard lost just one set in the whole competition, which was in the final against Sinner. It was Alcaraz’s second Grand Slam this year and the sixth title overall.

Earlier, he lifted the French Open as well, by beating the same finalist, in a five-set thriller with a score of 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 7-6. With his recent title in New York, Alcaraz became the youngest player in the history of tennis in the Open era to win six Grand Slam titles. The only player who came close to him was the former world number one, Spain’s Rafael Nadal, who won five major titles before turning 23.