Alcaraz the exception to standard height for a great tennis player

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timnz

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Does Alcaraz show that the height trend in tennis has valid exceptions?

The last 30 years the very top players have been in the 6 ft 1 to 6ft 3 range (Sampras, Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Murray ). Alcaraz looks to be a tad under 6ft. Is he an example that height isn’t as important as we thought?
 
Agassi.

I think height to an extent is important, but there's a hundred moving physical and mental parts to a great tennis player. In some situations, other parts can make up for a "deficiency" of a particular part. He's 5'11" (it's not like he's Schwartzman's height) with a decent, if not great, serve, and he has a ton of other great physical and mental attributes. It's not that surprising.
 
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TheNachoMan said:
The obsession with this kids height is a bit weird now..lol
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He has long arms for his height i think. This helps him a bit with the serve. He is probably never going to be good spot server, but he compensates that with power of the serve(he can serve over 130mph).

All in all, height of Alcaraz(somewhere between 5'11 - 6'0) doesn't seem to be a significant problem.
 
timnz said:
Does Alcaraz show that the height trend in tennis has valid exceptions?

The last 30 years the very top players have been in the 6 ft 1 to 6ft 3 range (Sampras, Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Murray ). Alcaraz looks to be a tad under 6ft. Is he an example that height isn’t as important as we thought?
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Agassi??
Wawrinka!?
 
Connors and Agassi are below their contemporaries.

But Alcaraz is the most powerfully built, especially at that age. The nearest comparison is Nadal.
 
The issue with Agassi wasn’t height anyways.

It was what was between his ears, for one, and what was inside his spinal column.

Pete was better but peak PETE is the most unbeatable player ever. without him, even in an era with unfavorable conditions for him, Agassi could’ve won 15 Slams.
 
Hewitt and Agassi were both under 6’. Stan Wawrinka won 3 slams in this era at 6’ even, which is what I would guess Alcaraz’s height is
 
Nadal is no more than 6' barefoot. Fed is probably a tad below 6'1, djokovic 6'1.5 and murray 6'2. Alcarez is 5'11 at best. Agassi was probably 5'10 and Hewitt a little below that. Nalbandian was 5'10 or so and Sampras around 6'. Biggest advantage to being over 6' is for serving and in the modern game the serve is nowhere near as important as groundstrokes. I actually think prime Agassi would do better than prime Sampras in today's Era. Sampras relied heavily on his serve and had the advantage of super fast grass with uneven bounces which made his serve basically unbreakable. Sampras wouldn't have been nearly the same player if he was a couple inches shorter but if Nadal was 2 inches shorter I don't think it would have been made much difference. Same with agassi, it wasn't height that held him from being even greater but the fact that he wasn't the great athlete/mover that these other guys are. Hewitts problem wasn't as much his serve as he just didn't have enough firepower on either side of his groundstrokes. Almost forgot Wawrinka who probably isn't quite a legit 6'. He could hit the felt off the ball from both sides which seemed more to do with his build than his height. Now granted if you get too small like Schwartzman 5'5 or ferrer 5'8 then the serve becomes not only not a weapon but also a liability.
 
6' - 6'2'' I think had been perceived as the perfect height until these generation of giants came along. People wondered now that we have all these giants, the perfect height may increase, especially after Medvedev who happens to be the tallest no.1 ever. However, Alcaraz, Rune and Sinner seems to be on the way to prove 6-6'2" still is the perfect height for a tennis player.
 
chjtennis said:
6' - 6'2'' I think had been perceived as the perfect height until these generation of giants came along. People wondered now that we have all these giants, the perfect height may increase, especially after Medvedev who happens to be the tallest no.1 ever. However, Alcaraz, Rune and Sinner seems to be on the way to prove 6-6'2" still is the perfect height for a tennis player.
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Alcarez is not 6' barefoot. MAYBE in shoes he is. Sinner is more like 6'3.
 
noelgally said:
Alcarez is not 6' barefoot. MAYBE in shoes he is. Sinner is more like 6'3.
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In the trophy ceremony after the final, he was in the same frame as Princess of Wales, who on a pair of heels should be well over 6', and he appeared a little taller. He's Vapor pro is low to the ground and shouldn't make him that much taller than he actually is, so, I'd say is he is minimum 6', maybe slightly taller.
 
chjtennis said:
In the trophy ceremony after the final, he was in the same frame as Princess of Wales, who on a pair of heels should be well over 6', and he appeared a little taller. He's Vapor pro is low to the ground and shouldn't make him that much taller than he actually is, so, I'd say is he is minimum 6', maybe slightly taller.
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Generally High heels give you 2 or 3 inches. Princess of Wales looks to be about 5'8.5 which would put her around 5'11. No way was she well over 6'. This would put alcarez at around 6' in shoes
 
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Prince of Wales is about 5'9 and high heels can give ladies as much as 4". I've seen her in person and with the heels, she was as tall as or taller than men who are 5'10-5'11.
 
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chjtennis said:
Prince of Wales is about 5'9 and high heels can give ladies almost 4". I've seen her in person and with the heels, she was as tall as or taller than men who are 5'10-5'11.
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Look at her pictures with Fed when they are both in tennis shoes. Fed looks 4.5 inches taller which would make her 5'8.5 assuming Fed is a full 6'1. She also looked only a smidge taller than raducanu who looks to be 5'7.5 at best. So I think it's fair to say Middleton is 5'8 to 5'8.5( she looks taller because she's so skinny and has long legs) The heels she was wearing gave her 3 inches max. So that gives us 5'11.5 at most in her heels. Alcarez looked a little taller which gives us 6' in shoes which translates to 5"11 at most barefoot. Plus djoker is 6'1.5 and looked 2.5 to 3 inches taller. Dude is around 5'10.5-5'11.
 
noelgally said:
Look at her pictures with Fed when they are both in tennis shoes. Fed looks 4.5 inches taller which would make her 5'8.5 assuming Fed is a full 6'1. She also looked only a smidge taller than raducanu who looks to be 5'7.5 at best. So I think it's fair to say Middleton is 5'8 to 5'8.5( she looks taller because she's so skinny and has long legs) The heels she was wearing gave her 3 inches max. So that gives us 5'11.5 at most in her heels. Alcarez looked a little taller which gives us 6' in shoes which translates to 5"11 at most barefoot. Plus djoker is 6'1.5 and looked 2.5 to 3 inches taller. Dude is around 5'10.5-5'11.
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How can you measure people's height so accurately by just watching a video? 4.5 inches taller? Wow.

I've seen her in person. She was formally dressed with high heels. She was almost as tall as men who were 6'.
 
timnz said:
Does Alcaraz show that the height trend in tennis has valid exceptions?

The last 30 years the very top players have been in the 6 ft 1 to 6ft 3 range (Sampras, Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Murray ). Alcaraz looks to be a tad under 6ft. Is he an example that height isn’t as important as we thought?
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You forgot Agassi who is about the same height as Alcaraz.
 
aman92 said:
Why the feck is this forum obsessed with Alcaraz's height so much? Some weird fetish TTW posters have
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Nobody is obsessed. The controversy started when the ATP claimed his height was 6'1 when it's clearly not even close.
 
chjtennis said:
How can you measure people's height so accurately by just watching a video? 4.5 inches taller? Wow.

I've seen her in person. She was formally dressed with high heels. She was almost as tall as men who were 6'.
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Alcaraz is not roaming around barefoot for him to be taller than someone on heels, his shoes himself add like 2 inches or so to his frame.

Alcaraz is 5.10 or a maximum of 5.11, not anymore, everybody knows this, it is no rocket science. People who are 6'0 don't look so short on tv or next to other stars.
 
Razer said:
Alcaraz is not roaming around barefoot for him to be taller than someone on heels, his shoes himself add like 2 inches or so to his frame.

Alcaraz is 5.10 or a maximum of 5.11, not anymore, everybody knows this, it is no rocket science. People who are 6'0 don't look so short on tv or next to other stars.
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Have you measured him in person? Also, don't forget the guy can still grow. He might have grown since the time you saw him in person. Measuring someone's height by seeing them on TV is also not accurate at all.
 
Height is most useful for serving big. If you have the technique to serve 135+ while being below 6’ feet tall, then height is not that important. Generally a lot of the shorter players return better and are amongst the fastest movers/defenders on court. So, Alcaraz has all the advantages of his height while his good serve technique has allows him to escape the limitation of his less-than-optimal height.
 
timnz said:
Does Alcaraz show that the height trend in tennis has valid exceptions?

The last 30 years the very top players have been in the 6 ft 1 to 6ft 3 range (Sampras, Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Murray ). Alcaraz looks to be a tad under 6ft. Is he an example that height isn’t as important as we thought?
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Just like Rog-Rafa-Novak redefined tennis by playing in their 30s and winning 20 or more slams, Carlitos has redefined the perfect height for a tennis player.

He consistently serves 124mph+ when others here said his height would not allow him. There are no weaknesses.
 
I mean, he is not Schwartzman, not even Ferrer, so I can't say his height is a significant factor to consider. He's far from being short despite the "amusing" constant references to his height here.
 
Pretty standard for the majority of tennis history. In fact, quite tall.

Hopefully we'll return to a time when height isn't a prerequisite for being a slam winner.
 
Good for him that Carlos when he was really tiny did not read some ttw posters dissertations on why trends did not favor him to win grand slams.
 
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