Carlos Alcaraz will make a significant change to his schedule in 2025, as he opted to sign up for a tournament that he never played before, impacting the rest of his schedule.
During their careers, many tennis players create a schedule that works for them, and then they stick to it for the remainder of their careers, returning to certain tournaments over and over again.
For example, Rafael Nadal's name is almost synonymous with the ATP 500 tournament in Barcelona, having won the tournament 12 times, including eight consecutive times between 2005 and 2013.
It's not a surprise that also the centre court in Barcelona is named after the famed Spaniard, called the Pista Rafa Nadal. Another player whose name was synonymous with a tournament was Roger Federer and the Halle Open, which he won 10 times, or his home tournament in Basel, which he also won 10 times.
Alcaraz is still only 21 years old, and naturally, he's still only searching for his perfect schedule. At the start of the season, there aren't many options, as the first major of the season, the Australian Open, is held already in the third week of the year.
Because of that, players have an option to sign up for some of the tournaments in the first two weeks of the season, or play an exhibition tournament, or enter the season's first Grand Slam without any match preparation.
However, after the Australian Open, the scheduling options open quite a bit. Most of the times, there are so-called "swings" when all of the tournaments in the certain time of the year are played on one surface, but that's not the case in February.
In March, there are two ATP Masters 1000 tournaments played on the hard courts, the Indian Wells Open and the Miami Open, also known as the Sunshine Double.
That's one of the reasons why most of the players opt not to switch surfaces and stay on the hard courts after the Australian Open, continuing in some of the European tournaments, or possibly in Doha, Acapulco, or Dubai.
Another route is relatively unique, and it's the so-called 'Golden Swing' which is the series of three clay-court tournaments in South America. This route is chosen almost uniquely only by the players from this region, who want to play in front of their home crowds, or clay-court specialists, who prefer the red dirt so much to hard courts that they are willing to switch the surfaces, only to return to the hard courts for the Sunshine Double.
Quite surprisingly, the Golden Swing was the route that Alcaraz chose early in his tennis career. In 2022, he won the Rio Open. Last year, he won the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires and reached the final in Rio.
However, this year, he lost already in the semi-finals in Buenos Aires, and his Rio Open participation ended in retirement after he picked up an ankle injury just a couple of games into his first-round match against Thiago Monteiro.
This route was surprising for the young Spaniard early in his career, because while it could be said that clay is his strongest surface, it's certainly not by far, and he's probably one of the most versatile players in the world.
At the end of the day, the clay-court major, the Roland Garros, was the last one he won, after triumphing at the US Open and Wimbledon, and the grass-court major is also the first one where he won two times, despite barely playing on the surface before last year.
On top of that, he proved to be a real force also during the Sunshine Double, having won the Indian Wells Open in 2023 and 2024, and winning the Miami Open in 2022.
Therefore, traveling briefly to South America to play on clay didn't make that much sense for the young sensation, and maybe also the painful memory from Rio is one of the reasons why he opted to change that approach this year.
The Rotterdam Open organizers announced that Alcaraz would be making his debut at the event, which will be played from February 3rd to 9th in 2025.
He has never played this tournament before, and this decision almost directly implies that in 2025, he will skip the Golden Swing in favor of the tournaments in Europe.
The Argentina Open will be played from February 10th to 16th, starting one day after the Rotterdam Open final, which Alcaraz will be favorite to reach, meaning that it would be almost impossible and highly illogical for him to travel to South America.
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