09/13/2022 at 06:21
CEST
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The 19-year-old Spanish tennis player confesses after declaring himself champion of the US Open 2022
“Getting a Grand Slam and being number one was due to the work I did with my team,” he admits.
The place where Carlos Alcaraz attended a group of Spanish journalists after winning the US Open 2022 offers a metaphor that fits the moment.
The 19 year old teenager is, on the 36th floor, comfortable and perched on the heights. There are other towers in Manhattan that rise higher, but this one privileged view not bad at all. And it’s close to Times Square, a place where the spotlights come on.
In the evening he went out with his family and his team to dine in a Peruvian restaurant that the Michelin guide talks about. In a few hours she will fly to Spain, where the plan is to play the Davis Cup. But first he respects, professional and smiling, and jovial, the commitments that the victory entails, and opens them up, on tennis but also on him.
Question: On the track you don’t seem to be afraid of anything. What is Carlos Alcaraz afraid of, as a tennis player and as a 19-year-old boy from Murcia?
Answer: As a normal boy I am afraid of many things. I would say in the dark. Also, I’m not a fan of scary movies. Probably to spiders … to many things. Honestly, As a tennis player I’m afraid of disappointing him. It is probably one of my fears: to disappoint all my people, not to measure up of what they think. Although he has won a Grand Slam and is now number one, there will probably be tournaments where you have expectations and the fear of not being up to it. There are many people who think and opine, but my fear is with those around me, since I have little fear of things on the track.
What do you think they expect from you?
Well I don’t know. There are people who say no, that they don’t care if I lose in the first round, if I lose in the final … But it’s a thought that I have inside.
About eight years ago, he posted a photo on social media that said: “money, rackets, potatoes. I have everything. “Now he still has the racket, yesterday they gave him a curious check (2.6 million euros), we don’t know if he still likes potatoes. Does he have everything?
(Laughs) When you are little you publish nonsense, right? As you get older, you realize that there are many more important things than what tennis is, than what it is. money and that’s what food is. You realize more important things.
“I think I’m not chosen, I’ve worked on it”
Eventually he said on the track that he made tough decisions with his family. What are some of these decisions? What do you feel you have sacrificed to dedicate yourself to the tennis you like so much?
What I’m saying is that I’m young and that there are still decisions where I haven’t painted much that they make for me. In the race you have to make those tough decisions on issues like (relationships with) brands, training issues, coaches … And they are important things, even if it seems not, and they are doing better than me.
He has fulfilled his dream of being a number, he has already won a big one. Is there any tournament or situation right now that would make you particularly excited?
Playing with (Roger) Federer. Right now I think I have very few options to be able to play with him, but that would be something I’d like. And I think so beat one of the three in a Grand Slam (Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic). I’ve always said that to be the best you have to win the best.
“I would be particularly excited to play against Federer and beat Roger, Nadal or Djokovic in a Grand Slam. To be the best you have to beat the best.”
He is breaking records of precocity, he is the youngest number one in history … Do you claim like a few years ago that you are not chosen or do you start to think that you may have something special?
I remain true to my answer. Nobody gives you anything, I think. Nobody clicks and you have everything you ask for but things have to be worked on, things have to be taken. And I believe that what I got, what I got yesterday, a Grand Slam and being number one in the world, is due to the work that I have been doing with my team for a long time. It wasn’t a bed of roses. You have to suffer and you have also had to go through difficult times to get to this moment. And I believe that I was not chosen nor did anyone say that I will be the best, but rather that I have worked for it.
In addition to having his family and team on his side of the mental work, he works with a professional. Where did she help you?
I have been working with a psychologist since 2019, early 2020. Her name is Isabel Balaguer, she is a very good professional and she helped me. I think she is one of the main reasons why she can be number one in the world today. I have improved a lot thanks to her. It is a very important job to have a psychologist by your side who works with you, since tennis is challenging week after week, for a whole year you have to be mentally fresh, you have to be able to resist pressure, bear that everyone has their eyes on you. It is very important to know how to deal with it and I believe that without a psychologist, without anyone to help you in that aspect, it is not impossible, but it is much more complicated.
What does it tell you, what tools does it give you?
He talks, he gives me advice, he gives me the tools to tackle things on the track. Off the track, he gives me advice on how to cope with times that can be a bit overwhelming.
How does this mental work help you in situations like that of the quarter-finals (when you have passed a match point against Jannik Sinner), what’s going on in your head?
I dealt with it thinking I had to go ahead for this. So far I had had a match point, I was playing well, I felt good and it was not the time to go down, but to continue there, to continue showing my good game, that I was feeling pretty, pretty good. Yes, it is true that I thought: ‘please don’t miss this, I know it will hurt’. But the fifth set came and I went there. At least I have a feeling that, if I lost the game, I would leave with the feeling of “I went there, I left everything, I had a lot of options, it couldn’t be and will be”. This was my thought.
“Politics is something I don’t pay much attention to. When the time comes I’ll see if I vote or not. But I’m proud to be from Murcia and to be Spanish.”
Have you incorporated new routines or do you stick to the ones you used to have? What do you always do before matches and during?
I strengthened the routines I had, performed them better and better, each time incorporated it as something more natural to me. Before games, it’s not like I had a clear routine. Obviously I have my warm-up, which I always do the same thing, basically I always try to go to the same place with my team. But I’m not saying it well: five minutes with me before the game, headphones, like this … If I want to listen to music, I listen to music; If not, I don’t listen to music. I go as I feel in that moment. Yes, it is true that in the game the theme of going to the towel, the theme of catching four balls, throwing them five times, the bottles always drink first one, then another, the snack always before the bar, after the banana. .. These are things that come to my mind and are a bit of a mania.
Yesterday when asked if he was proud to be from El Palmar, he extended it and said he was proud to be from Murcia and also to be Spanish. He is 19 years old. Now you can vote. Are you interested in politics? Do you have a political conscience?
No I do not have. The truth is that politics is something I don’t pay much attention to. There is a lot of news, a lot of things about politics and I am more or less up to date, but very little, really. When the time comes I will see if I will vote or not. It’s something I don’t pay much attention to right now, honestly. But I am proud to be and to be from Murcia and to be Spanish, and I say this with great pride.
What activities do you like to do with friends? What is a day in your life like outside of tennis?
Now that the weather was nice, I liked going to the beach with them, but when it’s winter it’s quiet. I am a very simple guy, who likes to be with five or six friends sitting on a bench, in the car, in a house, talking in a low voice, having fun, laughing, telling anecdotes. This makes me happy.
Nadal won’t want Djokovic to win more titles because it would take him out of his all-time record. You only have one, but you already have a record. Would you like Nadal to stay there to be closer?
No, no, how are you, not at all, not at all. I will always be proud that Rafa wins the Grand Slam. And of course, if I unfortunately lose in a Grand Slam, know that I will cheer for his victory. I will always be with a Spaniard and I will cheer on a Spaniard. Honestly I won one, I don’t feel close to it anymore. For now I will think about the second and try to achieve it, which very few people have been able to do. For now, this is my goal.
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