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MELBOURNE, Australia – Most of the work to tweak or change a stroke or simply get better is done between tournaments and, more particularly, in the brief break that passes for an off-season.

Carlos Alcaraz didn’t have much of one this year. And he is a constant work in progress as it is, even if he’s already a great player.

So it probably wasn’t much of a surprise that he was tweaking his serve motion on the practice courts earlier in the week, in the middle of the Australian Open.

From what we could see, coach Juan Carlos Ferrero was trying to get him to throw his toss higher and more out in front. With mixed results, and a little frustration from Alcaraz himself.

Here’s what it looked like; he hit about 40 serves, caught the toss 3-4 times, and hit a target a total of three times (Not that we were counting)(Okay, yes, we were counting).

Carlos – about the shorts …

But the takeaway from this session was undeniably the fact that Alcaraz went full … Arnaldi with the practice courts.

Arnaldi, vintage 2024 Brisbane (also, Holger Rune).

Questionable fashion choices in hot, steamy, shirtless Brisbane

Neither of the two repeated the experiment this year. But We’re just wondering if Alcaraz’s … better shorts were all in the laundry.

It was … quite a sight.

Alcaraz had six aces and four double faults and a 59% first-serve percentge in hi straight-sets, first-round win over Alexander Shevchenko.

In a very quick (1h21) win over Yoshihito Nishioka in the second round, had 14 aces and three doubles faults and a 60 per cent serve percentage.

He had nine aces and three double faults and a 61 per cent serve percentage in his third round against Nuno Borges.

It’s tough to tell if the changes mid-tournament will have an effect, because Alcaraz hasn’t been tested yet.

We might know more as he plays Jack Draper on Sunday in the round of 16.

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