Carlos Alcaraz Names 'Most Challenging' Aspect Of Australian Open
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Carlos Alcaraz knows how to prepare well for the new season, but so do his rivals, as he recently named the most challenging aspect of competing at the Australian Open.
The young Spaniard might be one of the top favorites to win every tournament he enters, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't find it challenging. In 2024, Alcaraz won two majors, and in 2025, he wants to start by winning the Australian Open.
He doesn't shy away from admitting that it's his ambition, and if he wins it, he will become the youngest man to complete the Career Grand Slam.
Ahead of the first major of the season, Alcaraz chose a relatively untraditional approach. Of the players ranked inside of the Top 60 of the ATP Rankings, only five players didn't play any warm-up event ahead of the Australian Open.
Two of them, Jack Draper and Tallon Griekspoor, are injured, one of them is Daniil Medvedev, who just welcomed his second child, and therefore, his absence is understandable.
The other two are the two currently brightest stars on the ATP Tour, Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. Still, they will complete some matches before the start of the Australian Open.
Both signed up for exhibition charity matches at the Rod Laver Arena, giving them the feel of the court on which they will play. Sinner already played his first match, beating Alexei Popyrin. Alcaraz will face the same opponent in one of his matches.
Still, when talking to Tennis Channel's Peter Bodo recently, the Spaniard admitted that he finds the fact that everyone comes well-prepared to Australia challenging when it comes to his chances of winning the first major of the season.
"A lot of players have played matches and tournaments before Australia (the tournament), and they prepare pretty well for it. For me, that’s the most challenging thing about Australia."
"Everybody is doing a really solid and pretty good pre-season. It feels like all the people are going to show his cards on the table, how hard they worked for Australia and to do really good results."
Ben Shelton, who also spoke to Bodo, analyzed how some players have a better start to the season than others, while some peak at the end of a season and carry it over to the new one, and some struggle throughout the period.
"It's interesting. At the end of the year, there are certain guys who are in perfect form, they're match tough. Maybe they were injured earlier, so they had some breaks and they're coming in and they're playing lights out."
"Maybe they just won the tour finals, played great matches at Davis Cup, got to those exhibitions and played a lot of good matches. They’re the ones feeling good, while the other guys are like, 'Oh, I've had six weeks off. I'm not really match tough right now.'"
