Despite some ups and downs, Carlos Alcaraz can be happy with his season so far. The young Spanish champion has won two consecutive Grand Slam titles, the French Open and the Wimbledon Championships, bringing to four Major titles in his career.
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The former world number 1 was also a star at the Paris Olympics, where he was the main favourite to win the gold medal. The 21-year-old from Murcia made it to the final without losing a set, but had to give up on an amazing Novak Djokovic. Serbian legend played a fantastic match on Philippe Chatrier and prevailed in two tiebreaks, despite Carlitos doing everything possible to win the gold medal for his team.
After the Paris Olympics, the four-time Grand Slam champion missed out on the Montreal Masters 1000 and returned to action in Cincinnati the following week. Fans and insiders quickly realized that Alcaraz was not brilliant and his run in Ohio ended already in the second round against French veteran Gael Monfils.
Carlos arrived much earlier at the US Open - where he won in 2022 - but his form did not improve as expected. The Spaniard struggled to make his debut against Li Tu and was eliminated in the second round by Botic van de Zandschulp playing a bad match from start to finish.
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A new beginning for Carlitos
After taking a few days to relax and forget the disappointment in New York, Alcaraz is back training for the Davis Cup. The former world number 1 will help his Spain to play in Valencia next week. Spain captain David Ferrer reflected on the importance of Carlitos: "Having a player with the characteristics of Carlos Alcaraz is something everyone would want, and we are lucky to have that commitment that Carlos has made to be here in Valencia.
The young Spanish champion is likely to have arrived tired at the last tournaments on the hard court, having spent a lot of energy in the previous months with amazing results. After his loss against van de Zandschulp in NY, the former World No.1 has been self-critical: There was a lot of emotions I couldnt control, it was kind of up in some points, then I lose in some points and it gets down. It was like a rollercoaster in my mind it can be like that if I want to think about big things. I have to improve it, I have to learn about it. Theres a few matches that Ive felt like that, where after every match that I felt like that I always said the same: I said to learn about it, I have to think about it. If Im feeling what Im thinking right now, Im not changing. Thats the problem.
If Im going to sit here after the matches that I feel or I felt like that I couldnt deal with it, that I couldnt change the match, couldnt push up a little bit and say I have to think about it, I have to learn about it, Im never going to change. Its going to be really tough if I want to improve, so I cant say much about it.
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It was a fight against myself, my mind, during the match. In tennis, you are playing against someone who wants the same as you to win the match. You have to be as much calm as you can, you have to think better during the match and try to do good things. Today I was playing against the opponent and I was playing against myself, in my mind.
Alcaraz's schedule
After the Davis Cup, Carlos will play the 2024 edition of the Laver Cup in Berlin. The Spaniard will be one of the protagonists of the ATP 500 in Beijing and the Masters 1000 in Shanghai, where he hopes to get as many points as possible. Recently, the current World No.3 revealed his biggest fears as a player: "What I fear the most will always be injuries. Anything can happen, but we try to take care of ourselves to prevent it. The forearm injury worried me a lot; I didn't know if I would recover well. I have managed to play again without fear, but anything can happen.
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Due to premature eliminations in Cincinnati and New York, Alcaraz has practically given up any chance of returning to the top of the ATP rankings by beating Jannik Sinner (who will play the US Open final against Fritz today). The Spaniard will have to be more consistent throughout the season if he is to overtake the Italian ace, whose consistency has been impressive over the past twelve months.
