Carlos Alcaraz has drawn up his plans for the last phase of his 2023 season, and it starts with a week away from the tennis courts following his round of 16 exit in Shanghai.
The World No. 2 was ousted in the round of 16 stage of the Shanghai Masters by an inspired Grigor Dimitrov, who produced an all-court performance of rich quality to inflict the ninth defeat of Alcaraz this season and which ended his bid of eclipsing Novak Djokovic in the ATP Race at the Asian swing.
Djokovic had been absent from competition in Beijing and Shanghai in order to rest, but Alcaraz only managed to cut his lead marginally for the year-end No. 1 ranking. Alcaraz's defeat to Dimitrov forced the Spaniard and his entire entourage into an early flight home.
Spanish outlet MARCA reports that Alcaraz returned to his home city of Murcia, where he began his week-long rest after a disappointing end to the Asian swing, which also included a costly defeat to Jannik Sinner in the Beijing semifinals.
That break will end on Wednesday this week, with the 20-year-old set to resume training on Thursday at the Ferrero Tennis Academy. For now, the plan is to play at the Swiss Indoors in Basel, which begins on October 23rd and is set to act as a precursor to his end-of-season tournaments in Paris-Bercy and ATP Finals.
MARCA also reports that the objective is to finish the year as World No. 1 despite Djokovic being in the box seat, but there is the likelihood of Alcaraz adjusting his schedule (which could result in a late withdrawal from Basel) before the Paris Masters.
Alcaraz's coaching team is certainly taking a very cautious approach not to repeat last year's mistakes, where the Spaniard was judged to have put so much toil into his body and ended up retiring from Bercy. Alcaraz also missed the ATP Finals in the subsequent week.
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