“Ending the year as No.1 is one of my main goals right now” : Carlos Alcaraz sets clear year-end goal
Carlos Alcaraz has been in red hot form throughout the year, having already accomplished another grand slam title (Wimbledon) and most recently an Olympics silver medal at Paris. After taking a short break from this ‘loss’, the Spaniard has his eyes set on the ATP rankings.
The world No.3 will be participating in the Cincinnati Open, the same tournament where he suffered a loss in the final to rival Novak Djokovic last year. The Spaniard went down fighting in a three set thriller which became an instant classic.
The current world No.1 Jannik Sinner has doubts regarding participation in this tournament, as the Italian has not yet fully recovered from his injury. While the world No.2 is on a high after winning the Olympics gold medal and has ruled himself out of the competition in order to get some well-deserved rest. This feels like the perfect opportunity for Alcaraz, who is only 450 points behind the top ranking.
“Obviously being No. 1 is a goal every time that I am [behind] and the race is an important ranking for me, at the end of the year, if you end the race No. 1, in the rankings [it is] quite similar, so you’re going to end the No.1. So I’m really focused on that. I’m focused on going to every tournament, thinking about playing great tennis, doing a good result just to get better in the race. This year, ending the year as No. 1 is one of my main goals right now. So I’m looking forward to doing it and let’s see,” said the 21-year-old (via Eurosport).
Carlos Alcaraz aims to win matches while playing ‘great tennis’
The Spaniard has won 20 out of the 22 matches he has played since the French Open, with his only losses coming against Jack Draper in Queen’s and the most recent Olympics final against the Serbian. But only winning is not enough for the youngster, as the standard which he has set for himself aims that he needs to win while also playing quality tennis, although he is glad to have overcome tough situations during matches even while not living up to his golden standard.
“I’ve been playing great tennis, but probably most of the matches I won, I won them without playing great tennis, or I felt like I didn’t play really great tennis, so the way that I approach every match, I stay there strong mentally in some situations, I’m really, really happy about that. [I’m happy] about the way that I [handled] some situations, that I stayed there, even knowing that I didn’t play, or I wasn’t playing great tennis. But [I played] with a positive attitude, with the right face always, and trying to find solutions in some moments that I could do it. I’m really happy about it,” the Spainard added.
Carlos Alcaraz will be looking to perform consistently for the rest of the year in order to achieve the world No.1 ranking, and the Cincinnati Open would be the perfect way to start as the Spainard has good memories of the tournament from last year.
“I’m excited to play here again. I’m really happy to be back. Obviously great memories from last year, reaching the final, losing a really tight and epic match. This is a tournament that I love playing and yeah, excited to start the tournament.” Alcaraz concluded.
Carlos Alcaraz’s opening match in the Cincinnati Open will be against either Gael Monfils or Alexei Popyrin, as he will be hoping for a deep run in order to gain more points and increase confidence ahead of the US Open on August 26.
