Newly crowned Monte Carlo champion Carlos Alcaraz admits there are ‘difficult months ahead’ as he tries to match the expectations of his fans throughout the clay swing.
The world No.3 lifted his first Masters 1000 title of the season on Sunday with a three-set win over Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti. Earlier this year, he also won the Rotterdam Open, which is an ATP 500 event. As a result of Alcaraz’s latest triumph, he will move up to second in the PIF ATP rankings on Monday for the first time since November.
Coming into the event, the Spaniard has spoken openly about dealing with criticism he has received regarding some of his results in recent months. Even though he has recorded a win-loss record of 20-4 since January with his losses being to Novak Djokovic, Jiri Lehecka, Jack Draper and David Goffin.
Despite the comments, Alcaraz played down the suggestion he ‘proved a point’ by clinching the Monte Carlo title which is his 18th Tour-level trophy.
“I don’t feel that way,” he said before adding, “I always say that, let’s say freak talk, when you’re not winning or people have high expectations of you when you don’t win tournaments or matches they probably talk a lot.
“I just realized that I don’t have to think about all they are talking about and just focus on myself. So I’m not gonna say I just proved them wrong.
“I’m just really happy to be able to refocus on the important things and just be focused on myself and the part that I have to follow with my team. Just playing for myself. So I’m just really happy that I was able to do it.”
Alcaraz knows the focus will intensify on him in the coming weeks with the Barcelona Open and Madrid Masters getting underway this month in his native Spain. After that comes the Italian Masters which will feature the return of world No.1 Jannik Sinner following a three-month ban for an anti-doping violation. Then he will be seeking to defend his title at the French Open where he will be bidding to become the second man in the past 20 years to win the Grand Slam for a second year running after Rafael Nadal.
“I’m pretty sure that it’s going to be difficult months ahead because a lot of people have high expectations of me having a really good clay season,” Alcaraz admits.
“Probably they want me to win almost every tournament, so it’s gonna be difficult to deal with it, I guess.
“But one thing that I learned the last few months is I have to think about myself. I have to think about myself. I have to just think about my people, my team, my family, my friends, my close friends. No matter what happens on the court, if I win, if I lose, I just have to leave the court happy.
“I’m proud about everything I have done. So that’s something that I learned, and I think I did it this week and it paid off.”
As for how he plans to tackle the upcoming tournaments, Alcaraz is determined to ignore the high expectations coming from those outside of his camp.
“I will try to just keep going the same way that I approach this tournament (in Monte Carlo) and not think about the people talking about expectation,” he concluded.
