Less than a week before the big French tournament begins, his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, is focusing his final training sessions on the Murcian overcoming the fear he has in his head.
The Roland Garros could be completely decaffeinated if, in the end, neither Rafa Nadal nor Carlos Alcaraz can compete at one hundred percent. And, right now, the presence of both in the French tournament is still up in the air.
Although both are clear that they will travel to Paris and there they will carry out their last tests, there are certain concerns among their coaches that make the outlook quite gray. While in the Balearic Islands, the issue seems more physical than anything else, as he himself has acknowledged, in Murcia the problem is mental.
After giving up playing the 1,000 Masters in Rome due to the discomfort he had in his right forearm, his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, is now focused on removing the fear he has in his head of getting injured again. According to the portal Puntodebrak.com, Alcaraz is already training without discomfort, but he still hits with his right forearm in mind. And to do this, the technician is combining intensity exercises with other more playful ones to relax this tension.
Likewise, his work team is increasing their workload little by little and, if nothing unforeseen occurs, next week he will travel to Parisian lands.
At 21 years old and being number 3 in the ATP rankings, the Palmar native wants to be able to compete well and be able to get rid of a double thorn in the second Grand Slam of the season. On the one hand, the taste that the Australian Open left him this year, where he lost in the quarterfinals against the German Alexander Zverev by 1-6, 3-6, 7-6 (2) and 4-6-. And, secondly, being able to reach the final that eluded him last year due to cramps that forced him to retire in the semifinal against Djokovic.
Carlos Alcaraz will compete at a disadvantage
If everything goes as planned, Carlos Alcaraz will compete at Roland Garros, but he will do so at a disadvantage with the majority of those who make up the top 10. And the man from Murcia has only played eight games in the last two months. Since he won the title at the Indian Wells 1,000 Masters against Medvedev (his only trophy of the course) he has only played four matches in two other tournaments of the same category, in Miami and Madrid. And in both he fell in the quarterfinals, against the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov and against the Russian Andrey Rublev, respectively.
And in all of 2024, he has played 23 games, achieving 18 wins and being defeated five times. Only Djokovic, who is number 1, has done more than the Spaniard. Specifically, the Serbian has only played 17 games in 2024 (12 wins and 5 losses). And in Rome he fell in the third round.
The rest arrives like this: the Italian Jannik Sinner has a record of 30 games (28 wins and 2 losses), while Medveded will arrive at this event after having played 31 games (24 wins and 7 losses); the German Zverez comes with a record of 25-9; Russian Rublev 22-8; the Norwegian Casper Ruud with a 32-8; the Greek Tsitsipas with 24-8; Poland’s Hurkacz with 26-10; and the Bulgarian Dimitrov with a 24-8.
Leave a Reply