Having lost the Olympic final, Carlos Alcaraz has already set his next goal: to end the year as number 1. The Spaniard is in excellent shape after having lined up Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the silver in the singles at the Paris Olympics.
The 21-year-old from Murcia will be busy this week at the Cincinnati Open, along with the current number 1 in the ranking Jannik Sinner. Alcaraz is only 450 points behind the South Tyrolean in the ATP Live Race To Turinor, which serves as a barometer for the year-end number 1.
“Obviously being number 1 is a goal every time I chaseand the race is an important ranking for me. At the end of the year, if you finish the race at number 1, it means that you will also finish at number 1 in the overall ranking”, Alcaraz said. “So I’m really focused on that. I’m focused on going to every tournament, thinking about playing great tennis, getting a good result just to improve in competition, and this year, finishing the year as No. 1 is one of my main goals right now. So I’m looking forward to doing that and let’s see.”
The first half of the season showed that Sinner was in a prime position to become the first Italian year-end No. 1 in history. But Carlos’ recent successes – and the related physical problems of Jannik – have reopened the race for the top spot in the standings.
“I am fighting to be number 1 in the race, it is something I really want to do as soon as possible, if I could do it in the future,” Alcaraz said. “This is a really important tournament, a really nice tournament for me. So I’ll try to play good tennis, I’ll try to play at the same level I used to play and we’ll see.
Alcaraz won 20 of the last 22 games since the start of Roland Garros. During that time, he has emerged victorious against nine of the 10 top 20 players he has faced.
“I played some great tennis, but probably most of the matches I won, I won without playing great tennis, or I felt like I didn’t play really great tennis,” hsaid the 2003 class. “It’s the way I approach every game, I stay mentally strong in certain situations, I’m really, really happy about that.
“SI’m happy with the way I handled some situations, to have stayed there, even knowing that I wasn’t playing, or I wasn’t playing great tennis. But I did it with a positive attitude, always with the right face and trying to find solutions in some moments when I could do it. I’m really happy about that.”
In Cincinnati, the Spaniard picked up a racket for the first time since the Olympics on Sunday. The second seed will play against Gael Monfils o Alexei Popyrin in his opening match.
“I’m excited to play here again. I’m really happy to be back. Obviously great memories from last year, reaching the final and losing in a really close and epic match,” Alcaraz said. “This is a tournament that I love to play and yeah, I’m excited to start the tournament.”