Carlos Alcaraz, with his eyes closed before debuting in Roland Garros | ATP Tour

Roland Garros

Alcaraz, with his eyes closed before debuting in Roland Garros

The Spanish works in his rest one day before premiering in Paris

May 25, 2025

Carlos Alcaraz had stayed with Albert Ramos-Viñolas on Sunday morning on track number 5 of Roland Garros to train for the last time before debuting Monday against Giulio Zeppieri. The Spanish, however, appeared half an hour before accompanied by Juan Carlos Ferrero and Samuel López, his two coaches, to get to work in a specific aspect of his game: the rest.

With his brother Álvaro to the serve, and for a long time, the 22 -year -old was trying to put the ball at stake with a great disadvantage: keep his eyes closed until he heard the sound of the ball on the other side of the network.

Thus, and seeking to improve the reaction time, No. 2 of the PIF ATP Rankings faced his brother’s serves without being able to see anything until the ball hit the rackets of the racket, generating a sound that Alcaraz used as a signal to open the eyes and react to the rest.

With that exercise, repeated for more than 15 minutes, the champion of four Grand Slam titles sought to improve that instinct necessary to be fast and precise to the rest, adjusting that characteristic of his game the day before starting the defense of the title, which won last year by defeating Alexander Zverev in the final.

The Spanish, who seeks to add improvements to his game continuously, has already worked in preseason to improve his serve, making a more relaxed movement, with the most loose doll, and without making stops when he arrived up with the racket. That resulted in an improvement in the service, endorsed by the numbers, which the Murcian used as a competitive advantage in his 2025 meetings, and there are the three titles he has won (Róterdam, Montecarlo and Rome, in addition to the final in Barcelona) as confirmation.

Alcaraz, which on Sunday afternoon will be present in the tribute that Rafael Nadal will receive at the Philippe Chatrier, will start this Monday at Roland Garros a few weeks very demanding: he defends the titles in the second Grand Slam of the season and also in Wimbledon, where in 2024 he already successfully protected his champion crown by imposing himself to Novak Djokovic in the All England Tennis Tennis Tennis Tennis Tennis Tennis Tennis Club