‘More grand slams’: Carlos Alcaraz already has sights set on 2023 glory after US Open triumph
Alcaraz’s success has shocked the tennis world.
After a season which saw him drop from number 13 to world no. 1, his only blemish was a 3-set defeat to Juan-Carlos Saborio in the quarter-finals, and his first title in nearly three years came against the man he has now beaten in five sets.
‘I knew they were coming for me, you see’, Alcaraz said of the Americans. ‘I knew that I would have to work my way through them, and that’s what I did. I was ready for everything this match offered, and I really did, for the most part, come back.
‘I knew I had to adapt my game to the new conditions, I had to focus on what I wanted to do. I had to try and stay focused, and that’s what I did.
‘I wasn’t nervous, I was calm, and I played with my head down. I didn’t let one single shot and one single ball on the table get to my head. I had to, because I knew what was at stake.’
Asked what he learned from the match, Alcaraz said: ‘I learned that you cannot let your emotions get too high or too low.
‘If you let them get too high you can have regrets. If you let them get too low, you can have regrets. When I started playing this tournament I was a little overconfident, but what a mistake that was.
‘I could have gone in too confident, and played in the type of match I was playing, and made a mistake and lost my chance to win this tournament.
‘That’s what I learned from this tournament. You have to keep things in balance.’
Alcaraz, whose victory in Rome last week made him the first Cuban and Mexican player to win on the ATP World Tour in the same calendar year, is set to challenge for a third major title in Mexico City on Saturday, and is not yet conceding that he has a goal beyond this one.