World No.3 Carlos Alcaraz said he wants to finish the season as World No.1 in the PIF ATP Rankings. Alcaraz is currently 450 points behind his rival Jannik Sinner, who occupies the numero uno position, in the ATP Live Race to Turin.
The Spaniard has had an amazing run in the ongoing season. He lost to Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinal of the Australian Open however since then he has ticked all the right boxes.
The youngster won his maiden Roland Garros title by beating Zverev in the summit clash at Court Philippe-Chatrier. Subsequently, he dominated Novak Djokovic to win his second Wimbledon title as he defeated the Serbian in straight sets.
However, Alcaraz suffered a straight-set loss against the Serb in the Gold medal match in the Paris Olympics, which concluded on Sunday.
“Obviously being No. 1 is a goal every time that I am [behind] and the race is an important ranking for me. At the end of the year, if you end the race No. 1, in the rankings [it is] quite similar, so you’re going to end the No. 1,” Alcaraz said. “So I’m really focused on that. I’m focused on going to every tournament, thinking about playing great tennis, doing a good result just to get better in the race, and this year, ending the year as No. 1 is one of my main goals right now. So I’m looking forward to doing it and let’s see.”
The Spaniard has put himself in a dominating position to end the year as No.1 after winning the last two slams and he would aim to keep up the good show.
“I’m fighting for being No. 1 in the race, that’s something that I really want to to do as soon as possible, if I could do it in the future,” Alcaraz said. “This one is a really important tournament, really good tournament for me. So I’m going to try to play good tennis, try to play same level as I was playing, and let’s see.”
Alcaraz has won 20 out of his last 22 matches but feels he hasn’t played at his absolute best however he said he has grabbed the crucial situations of big matches.
“I’ve been playing great tennis, but probably most of the matches I won, I won them without playing great tennis, or I felt like I didn’t play really great tennis,” Alcaraz said. “So the way that I approach every match, I stay there strong mentally in some situations, I’m really, really happy about that.
“[I’m happy] about the way that I [handled] some situations, that I stayed there, even knowing that I didn’t play, or I wasn’t playing great tennis. But [I played] with a positive attitude, with the right face always and trying to find solutions in some moments that I could do it. I’m really happy about it.”
Alcaraz has decided to opt out of the Canadian Open in Montreal.
