The Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz assured that he sees himself “physically and mentally at a good level to have a good clay tour”, after beating the Argentine Camilo Ugo Carabelli this Thursday in the round of 16 of the IEB+ Argentina Open tennis tournament, the first competition he has played after the Australian Open.
The number 2 in the ATP ranking acknowledged in a press conference held after the match – the first in which he competes this year on the clay surface – that the competition against the Argentine was “complicated”, but considered that, “except at certain moments”, the match “has gone very well”.
The 20-year-old from Murcia, champion of the United States Open in 2022 and the last edition of Wimbledon, experienced a complicated end to the year due to an injury to his left foot and began 2024 with a discreet participation in the first Grand Slam of the season in Melbourne.
In this sense, Alcaraz defined himself as “a boy who tries not to trip over the same stone twice and who tries to learn from mistakes and improve.”
“There are many games, many difficult moments and many ups and downs and you can stumble again, but we try not to let that happen and for Carlos to be a little more mature and a little older. Since Wimbledon, the season has not been at all good and we have been learning so that it doesn’t happen this year,” Alcaraz said.
Regarding his rival at the Guillermo Vilas Stadium of the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club, where Alcaraz was already crowned champion last year, the Spaniard highlighted his “pace” and that “he is very fast.”
Carlos Alcaraz, Spanish tennis player, in game action at the Argentina Open 2024
AFP
Ugo Carabelli, who despite occupying 134th place in the ATP ranking, put the Murcian in several difficulties throughout the second set of the match, was “impressed” by Alcaraz’s forehand blows, whom he considered “obviously a ‘crack'” .
Both had a small conversation at the end of the match and the Argentine had a kind gesture after his defeat with the world number 2, to whom he gave a shirt from his soccer team, Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro, after Alcaraz attended on Wednesday to a match of the Boca Juniors club, rival of the first, at the legendary Alberto J. Armando ‘La Bombonera’ Stadium.
The Spanish player also had time for the laudatory words of his rival, who rejected the nickname ‘crack’ with laughter.
“I consider myself a very good player who knows how to deal with certain moments even though I’m only 20 years old (…) I consider Roger (Federer), Rafa (Nadal) and (Novak) Djokovic to be a ‘crack’,” he said, referring to to the three players, the first of them already retired, who have marked the last decades in the world of tennis, breaking almost all possible records on all surfaces.
2024-02-16 20:47:56
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