{"id":2775,"date":"2026-09-10T20:30:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T20:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2775"},"modified":"2026-09-10T20:30:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T20:30:50","slug":"john-mcenroe-reveals-who-he-would-like-to-see-carlos-alcaraz-play-in-his-ultimate-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2775","title":{"rendered":"John McEnroe reveals who he would like to see Carlos Alcaraz play in his ultimate match"},"content":{"rendered":"

John McEnroe has made no secret of his admiration for Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> and when he was asked by Tennis365 to pick a winner in his ultimate fantasy tennis contest, he struggled to come up with an answer.<\/p>\n

Tennis great McEnroe has been creating headlines once again with his comments on this year\u2019s US Open, with his pointed views ensuring he remains one of the most talked about analysts in the game.<\/p>\n

McEnroe often suggested Alcaraz is his \u2018favourite player to watch\u2019 and, responding to a question from this website, he admitted he would relish the chance to see the Spaniard taking on Roger Federer when both were at their best.<\/p>\n

After playing alongside Federer in a memorable exhibition night prior to this year\u2019s US Open and then being a part of the Swiss maestro\u2019s induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame a few days later, McEnroe confirmed he is a huge fan of the 20-time Grand Slam champion.<\/p>\n

So picking a winner between Alcaraz and Federer proved to be a tough task for the forthright New Yorker.<\/p>\n

More Tennis News<\/h2>\n

Carlos Alcaraz team member sends critical message to US Open after Ben Shelton loss<\/a><\/p>\n

Laura Robson says Carlos Alcaraz did something \u2018we never usually see\u2019 during defeat to Ben Shelton<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that it would be like the match you would dream of seeing,\u201d declared McEnroe, in his role as a pundit for Eurosport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say that\u2019s be, you know, 50-50, you know, the way I see it. \u2029I was gonna say it depends on what surface, but I\u2019m not sure it depends on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess Carlos just had more success on the clay at the French (Open). Then you\u2019ve got to do a lot of work to catch up to Roger, Wimbledon and the US Open, but those are one of those fantasy matches you\u2019d love to discuss.\u201d<\/p>\n

McEnroe went on to suggest Alcaraz\u2019s return at the US Open was a triumph for the sport, even though he lost out in a tight quarter-final match against Ben Shelton.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard defied plenty of doubters by coming back from a four-and-a-half-month injury lay-off in a Grand Slam event, but he confirmed he was ready to compete with some compelling performances.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, I\u2019m happy he came back, very happy,\u201d he added. \u201c\u2029It was a great boost for the tournament. It showed a lot of heart, considering he hadn\u2019t played in that match with Ben and at the end, it looked like he got sick a few times.<\/p>\n

\"John\n

John McEnroe \u2013 Eurosport Tennis Expert<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cObviously, the most challenging thing is to, you know, not play any events and come back in a major. You\u2019re rolling the dice a little.<\/p>\n

Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThey must have had their reasons. I don\u2019t know what they are. He had opportunities to win that match against Shelton, even though Ben definitely played the best match by far of his life and showed incredible athleticism as well as fitness. Otherwise, he would have lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll things considered, it seemed like he walked off the court with a smile on his face, which is just awesome for us. And hopefully, you know, he\u2019ll sort of be not feel the after effects and just go on from there.<\/p>\n

\u201cTennis needs Alcaraz and it\u2019s great to have him back.\u201d<\/p>\n

John McEnroe is a pundit for Eurosport at the US Open.<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Did Carlos Alcaraz make big \u2018tactical mistake\u2019 in US Open loss to Ben Shelton?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post John McEnroe reveals who he would like to see Carlos Alcaraz play in his ultimate match<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John McEnroe has made no secret of his admiration for Carlos Alcaraz and when he was asked by Tennis365 to pick a winner in his ultimate fantasy tennis contest, he struggled to come up with an answer. Tennis great McEnroe has been creating headlines once again with his comments on this year\u2019s US Open, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}