Carlos Alcaraz is adamant that the lack of matches before the US Open should not be cause for concern and is "not worried" about it.
Alcaraz enters this year's US Open as one of the favorites. Since rising to prominence and becoming one of the world's best players, the Spaniard has been contending for every tournament he plays in.
And perhaps, what is even strange of late is how Alcaraz has been playing at Grand Slam tournaments without getting sufficient preparation on a match court. This will be his fourth successive Grand Slam in which he has played little to no warm-up tournament.
Alcaraz opened his 2024 campaign by jetting into Melbourne and playing the Australian Open without his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero. He attained a respectable result, reaching his first quarterfinal Down Under.
At Roland Garros, the major talking point was whether he would recover from a forearm injury that derailed his schedule on the clay-court swing. Remarkably, despite only playing in Madrid, where he was defending the title (and losing in the quarterfinal), he went on to bag his first French Open, beating Alexander Zvereev in the final.
It was a similar case at Wimbledon. The 21-year-old surrendered his title defense at Queen's but was unbeatable at the All England Club and took down Novak Djokovic for the second year in a row for the gold crown.
There are questions about whether Alcaraz has enough gas left in the tank for one final lap of the season. Because of his participation in the Olympics, Alcaraz withdrew from this year's Canadian Open.
He only played in Cincinnati, where he lost his rain-interrupted opening match to 37-year-old Gael Monfils. He bemoaned about his performance as the worst of his young career.
That was the only warm-up event he has played before the 2024 US Open, which begins on Monday, August 26th. His coaching team will have plenty to digest and ponder before Alcaraz plays his first match in New York next week.
During his pre-tournament press conference, the four-time Grand Slam champion was asked to comment about his lack of matches on hard courts before the US Open.
Alcaraz believes he will be unaffected by it, as he has been in a similar predicament before this and still exceeded expectations. Still, he remains cautious when assessing his prospects for the tournament in the next two weeks.
"Well, it doesn't matter for me. Obviously I have loved to have more matches on my belt on hard court before the US Open. But, I mean, it doesn't affect me at all. If I look back a little bit, you know, for example, facing the Roland Garros, I hadn't too much matches on clay, and it was a pretty good result. And then in Wimbledon, same thing, you know."
"So I don't want to think that it's going to be the same, you know, than the previous two Grand Slams, but I'm not worried about not having too many matches on hard court."
Alcaraz is the third seed in New York and has landed in the same half of the draw as World No. 1 Jannik Sinner, whom he could face in the semifinal. In the first round, the 2022 champion will play Australian qualifier Li Tu.
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