Carlos Alcaraz has completed a season with which he will be very glad. The younger Spanish champion has proven that he can compete on the highest degree on all surfaces and has achieved a sensational feat for a participant of simply 21 years outdated, successful Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the identical yr (the youngest ever to take action).
The 21-year-old from Murcia additionally gained the Indian Wells Masters 1000 for the second yr in a row, triumphed on the Beijing ATP 500 and took the silver medal on the Paris Olympics, though the defeat to Novak Djokovic within the ultimate left its mark on his thoughts.
Carlos Alcaraz, Davis Cup Finals 2024© Stream screenshot
The 4-time Grand Slam champion dreamed of successful the gold medal for his nation, however he didn’t deal with the strain effectively within the ultimate and needed to succumb to the expertise of a legend like Nole in the most effective matches of all 2024.
The present world quantity 3 has had many ups and downs once more this season, struggling to search out the fitting consistency particularly within the Masters 1000 tournaments. This is without doubt one of the causes that allowed German ace Alexander Zverev to grab the second place within the ATP rating from him within the final weeks of 2024. Due to this overtake, Carlitos might should face his enormous rival Jannik Sinner within the semifinals on the subsequent Australian Open.
The previous world No. 1 will play two exhibition matches in america this week, going through Ben Shelton at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York and fellow American Frances Tiafoe in Charlotte. After that, Alcaraz will begin coaching for subsequent season and go away for Australia after Christmas. As in earlier years, the younger Spaniard won’t play any official event earlier than the Completely satisfied Slam (which can begin on January 12 and finish on January 26).
Carlitos hires Samuel Lopez
In line with MARCA, there will likely be a novelty in Carlos’ staff subsequent yr. Juan Carlos Ferrero will not be his solely coach, however Samuel Lopez will even be there. The latter has simply ended his collaboration with Pablo Carreno Busta after 9 years and is prepared for this new expertise.
On account of Ferrero’s absences, Lopez had already adopted Carlitos to the 2022 Miami Open, the final two editions of the Queen’s event and the 2023 Australian Open. Samuel will make his ‘debut’ in Alcaraz’s field in Rotterdam in February.
In the meantime, it has already been introduced that the world No. 3 will play the Queen’s ATP 500 and the Laver Cup in 2025.
The 4-time Grand Slam champion is aware of he has to enhance in some facets to return to the highest of the ATP rating and undermine Sinner, who has maintained spectacular consistency this season. Alcaraz ended 2024 with a niche of just about 5000 factors from the Italian ace, regardless of successful two Main titles and a Masters 1000.
Due to his sport, the 21-year-old from Murcia struggles to keep up the identical depth all year long and tends to undergo some very stunning losses when he’s not in high type. As well as, the Spaniard wants to enhance his sport in indoor circumstances as evidenced by the outcomes obtained within the final two seasons.
Alcaraz desires to shine in 2025
Regardless of having had ups and downs in 2024, high coach Paul Annacone believes that Alcaraz deserved to finish the yr in second place forward of Sascha Zverev.
“In my opinion, Sasha Zverev has had an amazing year” – the previous Roger Federer’s coach stated.
“The points don’t lie. He played an unbelievable amount of tennis, but if you win two majors and you’re not ranked No 2 in the world, that to me says that there’s a glitch in the system.
I think what is amazing is Carlos won two majors this year and didn’t play great in either one of those majors.
I was court side for his Roland Garros semi-final and I saw all of his Wimbledon matches, he didn’t play poorly, but for him, how skilled he is, he didn’t play great.
He is managing that level well enough to win majors, but periodically away from the majors we have seen a couple of blips on the radar” – he concluded.
The Spaniard should take one other step subsequent yr and restrict the variety of drops, in any other case he dangers falling additional within the ATP rating.
Carlos Alcaraz© cinch Championships/Instagram – Truthful Use
In contrast to in recent times, Alcaraz won’t play the tournaments on the crimson clay in South America after the AO however will play the celebrated Rotterdam ATP 500 for the primary time in his profession. Along with the Spaniard, Sinner, Medvedev, de Minaur, Rublev and Dimitrov will even play within the Dutch event.
