Carlos Alcaraz says suffering an early exit during his debut at the Canadian Masters 12 months ago has given him extra motivation for this year’s tournament.
The world No.1 lost in the first round of the tournament to Tommy Paul when the event was held in Montreal. However, since then Alcaraz has won seven Tour titles with two of those being at Grand Slam events. He defeated Casper Ruud to win last year’s US Open before more recently going on to beat Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final. He is one of only a handful of players on the men’s tour to have won multiple major titles before their 21st birthday.
Alcaraz’s attention now switches to Montreal where the Canadian Masters is taking place this year. He has already won four Masters 1000 trophies so far in his career. It will be the first tournament he has played since Wimbledon.
“I remember that I [did] not [have] a good run last year in Canada. I came this year to change it, hopefully to have a good run, better than last year. But one year later, I think I learned a lot from that situation on how to deal with the pressure, how to deal [with] everything,” Alcaraz told reporters on media day. “I have been playing in great stadiums in great rounds and I’m fighting for great things. I think that helped me a lot to grow up as a player, as a person, and I think one year later, I’m totally different.”
Ahead of the tournament, Alcaraz had a practice session with 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev and proved to be a hit with local fans who turned up to watch him play.
“It’s great to be here. I had my first practice today with Medvedev and I felt the love from the people,” he said. “They were screaming, ‘Carlitos. let’s go! Come on!’ It was my first practice and my first time here in Toronto, so it was special.”
So far this season, Alcaraz has won 47 out of 51 matches played with his only losses being to Jannik Sinner, Cameron Norrie, Fabian Marozsan and Djokovic. He has already won more than $.78M in prize money and secured his place in the year-end ATP Finals.
Tennis wasn’t the only topic on the table during media day for Alcaraz. He also said he would like to see footballer Kylian Mbappé move from Paris Saint-Germain to Real Madrid. It has been reported that Mbappe doesn’t want to extend his contract with the French team and recently rejected a ludicrous offer to play football in the Saudi Arabian league. There are suggestions that he wants to next play at Real Madrid which is the team Alcarz supports.
“All Madrid fans want to see Mbappé in Madrid,” Alcaraz said in Spanish. “He is one of the best players in the world, everyone wants to have him in their team. I hope people will read that Mbappé is coming to Madrid, I would love that.“
Alcraz’s first match at the Canadian Masters will be against either Ben Shelton or Bernabe Zapata Miralles.
