Carlos Alcaraz: “I see myself at a pretty good level” | ATP Tour

Roland Garros

Alcaraz: “I see myself at a pretty good level”

The Spaniard will face Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals

June 02, 2024

Raising his level to play the best match so far in the tournament, Carlos Alcaraz qualified this Sunday for the Roland Garros quarterfinals after defeating Felix Auger-Aliassime in three sets, thus meeting Stefanos Tsitsipas next Tuesday for a place in the semifinals of the second Grand Slam of the season.

“From the first round I saw that I could compete against the best, that I could have a great result in the tournament, but obviously as the days go by, as the rounds go by and the level and confidence increase…”, he started Alcaraz after defeating the Canadian. “I already said that the arm thing is practically forgotten, but as the days go by the level of my right is better and I feel more comfortable. I feel better and have a good lowering level.”

Since winning his first major at the 2022 US Open, Alcaraz has reached at least the quarterfinals in all the Grand Slam tournaments he has played. The No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings, however, wants more.

“We must evaluate all the results, we must appreciate that a quarterfinal in a Grand Slam is a very good result, but we always want more: we reached the quarterfinals and we are already thinking about the match,” Alcaraz warned. defeated last year in the Roland Garros semifinals by Novak Djokovic. “We are going to win the tournament, and anything other than that leaves us with a, shall we say, bittersweet taste. Obviously, as I said, you have to value the results, and reaching the quarterfinals is very good, as is reaching the semifinals. But we always want more.”

At the moment, Alcaraz is now joined by Tsitsipas, who dominates his Lexus ATP Head2Head series 5-0. In fact, the last time the two met was in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros 2023, where the Spaniard defeated the Greek in three sets.

“In the end, the games I have played against him have gone very well,” acknowledged the 21-year-old. “He hasn’t beaten me yet and that means I know a little bit about how to play him, but it’s been a while since the last time. That 5-0 doesn’t mean that they will win the next game either,” the Murcian acknowledged. “I always say that you learn much more from defeats than from victories, and I’m sure he will have learned what to do against me, how to play the game. I’m sure he will come out in a totally different way from previous encounters. “I will be focused, I will try to do the good things that I have done in the previous games.”

Something new that Tsitsipas will encounter when he goes out to play against Alcaraz next Tuesday will be the serve. The Spaniard, along with his team, have worked to vary the dynamics in the serve, something that he put into practice in his first match at Roland Garros and that he has maintained throughout the following rounds.

“It’s a small change, I don’t think it’s a big change either: the movement is a little higher, and there is no stopping, both with the legs and the arm,” Alcaraz explained. “It’s a little more dynamic and we’re not looking for anything specific. These are improvements that may come in handy. The issue of launching, the issue of hitting the ball higher, the direction, the power… It’s a mix of everything that improves everything a little.”