Why Carlos Alcaraz is well and truly back on top after Monte-Carlo Masters win

Carlos Alcaraz arrived in Monte-Carlo at the start of April without winning a single big trophy in 2025, and obviously, that’s a problem. It’s not a global warming kind of problem, but it wasn’t good enough from a player who many considered to be the best in the world.

He wasn’t the best in the world in 2025 or at least in the latter half of the year, which is when Jannik Sinner started to dominate the tennis tour, but his potential is certainly that of the best player in the world.

2025 didn’t offer anything different because the Spaniard didn’t really play all too well. He made the quarterfinal of the Australian Open, he won Rotterdam but bombed Doha and the Miami Open, with the Indian Wells Masters being a solid semifinal run.

Overall, it wasn’t what many thought it would be because Jannik Sinner missed most of these events. In his absence, many expected Alcaraz to literally take over the tour. Djokovic was playing poorly, Alexander Zverev was nowhere to be found.

Some of the other usual suspects didn’t really do much as well, so it made sense. His underperformance made some fans wonder what was going on. Alcaraz traditionally remained coy but would reveal after Monte-Carlo that he has been dealing with some off-court stuff as well.

Then came Monte-Carlo. His performances there were okay but certainly nothing special. Even with that, he was able to go all the way to the final where he outplayed Lorenzo Musetti to win the trophy. Finally, a big trophy.

He dropped a set in three of the five matches he played. In three of those matches, he lost the opening set, so it was far from a perfect week for Alcaraz. His tennis leaves a lot to be digested, but there are other important things to note about this run.

He showed impressive resilience coming out on top in several matches which weren’t easy to win by any means. The benefit of that is pretty clear. He will gain confidence, which will serve him well in the coming weeks.

Alcaraz will be good on clay

Now, this statement might seem pretty obvious to any tennis fan, but it needs to be said. There has been a decent amount of panic surrounding Alcaraz and his tennis leading into the Monte-Carlo Masters. Some of that comes from him being rather poor here the only times that he has played. He didn’t play a couple of times in the past, so he didn’t have a chance to really put a stamp on this event until this year.

This was his first proper crack at it, and he won it, which shows us that he’s still a good player. What the event showed us most is that the panic about Alcaraz was premature. This wasn’t a struggle where he failed to win a match in four months or anything remotely close to that.

He was playing poorly and less than he can play, but he wasn’t playing super terribly. He was still winning matches against some good players, and he was always going to bounce back. Doing so as quickly as he did simply shows that it was just part of that typical ebb and flow of a tennis season.

Another thing that it showed us is that Alcaraz will be a problem for the upcoming clay season. Take these matches he played in Monte-Carlo. He didn’t play them superbly well. Most of the players he bested gave him considerable amounts of problems.

He could have lost some of those matches. Maybe he should have, but being able to come out on top and win shows how difficult it is to beat him on clay. You need something special, as the last man who did it was Novak Djokovic, and he’s quite special, isn’t he?

The way he outplayed a solid field without even playing his best tennis shows what the landscape of clay looks like. It’s not great, and outside of some tremendous showing from the usual suspects, he almost has a free rein provided he plays close to his best.

Jannik Sinner coming back in Rome will be interesting to see because he might just come out swinging the way he was before getting suspended. Until then, it’s essentially Alcaraz’s to lose, and unlike these previous weeks and months since the Australian Open, he might just not lose because he’s back on clay, and he’s just that much better than the rest on that surface.

With a confidence-boosting win in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona coming up, an event which he won two years in a row, Alcaraz might just come to Madrid believing that nobody can beat him, and the best part about that is, he wouldn’t be entirely wrong either.