Fans and fans expected more from Carlos Alcaraz at the Cincinnati Masters 1000 and especially at the US Open, where he hoped to win his third straight Grand Slam title. The former world number 1 had not yet settled his defeat against Novak Djokovic in the final of the Paris Olympics and he gave up on Botic van de Zandschulp playing a bad match in the second round.
The young Spanish ace currently occupies third place in the ATP ranking, but is more than 4000 points away from Jannik Sinner’s first position. The 21-year-old from Murcia and the Italian champion both won two Majors this year, but the 23-year-old from San Candido was much more consistent throughout the season and won an extra Masters 1000.
Carlitos’ level has dropped at times throughout the season, an aspect he will have to work on in the future to become one of the best players ever. The four-time Grand Slam champion is playing the Davis Cup this week, before flying to Berlin for the 2024 edition of the Laver Cup (in which his illustrious compatriot Rafa Nadal will be missing).
The former world number 1 didn’t shine in this part of the season last year, in fact he had to wait until Indian Wells 2024 to win a title again. If last year he suffered a lot for the defeat against Novak Djokovic in Cincinnati, this year Alcaraz may have to digest the defeat at the final of the Olympics in Paris.
Alcaraz has ups and downs
Alcaraz has had ups and downs but his 2024 can be considered absolutely positive. Two Grand Slam titles and excellent results like the silver medal in Paris but too many highs and lows and few points calculating the 4000 points obtained with Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
Especially on the concrete Alcaraz has disappointed, at the last US Open the Spaniard came out immediately and quite surprised against van de Zandschulp, so the well-known coach Patrick Mouratoglou tried to analyze the difficulties of the Spanish tennis player in certain moments.
Alcaraz will fight with Italian ace Sinner in the next few years but compared to the champion of San Candido it was certainly very choppy: “He put almost everything mentally and physically to win those two Slam and was right as we know how much they mattered. But it is so exhausting and made him mentally exhausted”. Speaking of Carlos, Mouratoglou continued: “He is a very emotional guy and I saw that he had cramps often this year and during his career and this only at 20 years old. If you think about the Big Three how many times did he do it? Maybe he is really too emotional and thinking about this I believe that in the future should implement a calendar with more rest, basically mental rest more than physical”.
Currently Alcaraz is engaged in the Davis Cup with Spain and will try to give his contribution, then space for the next commitments with the season finale and the great expectation for the Nitto ATP Finals at the end of the year. After his debut in the Davis Cup, the Spanish tennis player had spoken at a conference: “I needed it after the last games and the feelings were not very positive. The Davis Cup is special and you always want to do well. I felt the extra pressure of being number one in the first set, I was not comfortable, but I had to be positive”, he stated.
The Spanish ace is a predestined
If he wins the 2025 Australian Open, Carlitos would become the youngest player ever to win five Grand Slam titles. The Spanish ace had missed out on AO in 2023 due to an injury, while this year he was eliminated by German ace Sascha Zverev in the quarterfinals.
In a long interview, the current World No.3 admitted his recent difficulties: “I had a few days of rest, of disconnection, and also a little time to prepare for the return to the tour, I could not train as much as I would have liked to get there in the best possible way. It’s an experience from which I will learn and keep improving. I had two or three days that were good for me to calm down, but once I was calm, I thought the best thing to do was to get back to training, to give our best, to get physically very good to be confident on the right track.” Fans and insiders hope the 21-year-old from Murcia will return to his best tennis in the last part of the season.