Carlos Alcaraz Reveals Plan To Ignore Expectations After Previously Succumbing To Them
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Carlos Alcaraz is one of the players who struggles with expectations, but he now plans to avoid them after winning the 2025 Monte-Carlo Masters.
Facing expectations is always tricky for professional athletes. In recent months, Alcaraz knew what it felt like, even though he has been in that position since the start of his tennis career.
However, after Jannik Sinner's three-month suspension, the spotlight shone even brighter on the young Spaniard, and he didn't handle that well, failing to win a title during the Sunshine Double in the United States.
But once the Tour shifted to the clay courts, Alcaraz once again started delivering. He won the Monte-Carlo Masters, once again proving that he can win the biggest trophies.
Obviously, after his triumph at the opening ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the clay-court season, the expectations have again skyrocketed, and that was one of the first questions the 21-year-old faced during his post-match press conference.
Alcaraz was asked how he plans to deal with the expectations now that many will expect him to win the Barcelona Open, and also the upcoming Madrid Open, Italian Open, and Roland Garros.
After his win in Monte-Carlo, the Spaniard will be practically the favorite to win all clay-court tournaments, but he plans to ignore any expectations that come his way.
"Well, yeah, as I said, it's going to be, I'm pretty sure that it's going to be difficult months ahead, because, as you said, a lot of people have really high expectations on me, on having a really good clay season. Probably they want me to win almost every tournament, so it's gonna be difficult to deal with it, I guess."
"But one thing that I learned last month is I have to think about myself. I have to think about myself. I have to just think about my people, my team, my family, my friends, my close friends. No matter what happens on the court, if I win, if I lose, I just have to leave the court happy."
Alcaraz has also learned how to appreciate his success more. He is proud of his win in Monte-Carlo, and he wants to follow up on that in the upcoming weeks.
"I'm proud of everything I have done. So that's something that I learned, and I think I did it this week and it paid off. In the next couple of months in this clay season, I will try to just keep going the same way that I approach this tournament and not think about the people talking about expectations."
"Just I will hear from my close people and my team have things to say to me, and that's all that matters to me. I will try to approach the clay season like this."
