Nitto ATP Finals 2024 Alcaraz Feature Sabado | Nitto ATP Finals

“These days I have read an interview in which Juan Carlos [Ferrero] He said that I had to learn that the season runs from January to November. And he is absolutely right in the world. Maybe it has been difficult for me to assimilate this last part of the season. I have many things to improve, and that is one of them. Learning that a tennis player’s season does not end in June, August or September, but rather lasts until November.”

That reflection from Carlos Alcaraz came in November 2023, after being eliminated in the semifinals of the Nitto ATP Finals by losing against Novak Djokovic, and pointed directly to how the Spaniard managed the final stretch of the season, the tournaments after the US Open .

In 2023, after the last Grand Slam of the season, Alcaraz fell in the semifinals in Beijing (against Jannik Sinner), won two matches in Shanghai and lost the first time in Paris, before reaching the Nitto ATP Finals and losing his first match against Alexander Zverev.

Although he would end up righting the course (he beat Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev to overcome the group stage and reach the semifinals, in which he lost against Djokovic), the Murcian did a marked exercise in self-criticism that Ferrero, his coach, shared from the beginning finally

“Since the US Open, we have lowered the level a little and in that aspect we have to improve,” Ferrero acknowledged those days. “You have to be more focused on being professional all the time. On the other hand, we know what we need to improve tennis-wise and mentally. They are also things of the 20 years that must mature. He is usually harsh with his own self-criticism.”

There are many things that distinguish Alcaraz. One of them is the very high learning capacity he has, despite still being almost a teenager (22 years old). If in 2023 the season seemed too long, in 2024 he has worked to prevent the same thing from happening again.

After the US Open, and despite having lived a very intense summer with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (where he won the silver medal), Alcaraz helped Spain qualify for the Davis Cup Finals (he won his two individual points, against France and the Czech Republic respectively), was decisive in Team Europe’s victory (winning the decisive point from Taylor Fritz) and went on to the Asian tour, where he won the trophy in Beijing in an epic final against Jannik Sinner (also lost in the Shanghai quarterfinals against Tomas Machac).

His defeat in the round of 16 in Paris against Ugo Humbert does not hide an obvious reality: Alcaraz learned from 2023 to arrive prepared for the final stretch of 2024, with hunger, with the flame lit, with sharp competitiveness.

Said and done: the Spaniard arrives in Turin with his homework done, ready to face the challenge of being crowned champion of champions.