World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz believes opponents consistently raise their level when facing him, regardless of their position in the ATP rankings.
He touched on this in his press conference after coming from a set down to defeat Arthur Rinderknech 6–7, 6–3, 6–2 in just under two and a half hours, extending his perfect start to the 2026 season to 16-0.
“Well, to be honest, I just sometimes get tired about playing Roger Federer every round. Yeah, sometimes just feel like, yeah, they playing really an insane level.
“I don’t know if I’m feeling not the right way, but I feel it’s just against me all the time. If they play like, you know, that level every match, they should be higher in the ranking. But, you know, obviously is something that concern me. When I’m just playing, I think about that.”
World No. 28 Rinderknech produced a phenomenal first set, striking 17 winners and landing 71% of his first serves. But Alcaraz dug deep to force a tiebreak.
Having surrendered leads of 3–1 and 5–2 in the breaker, it looked as though the Frenchman had missed his chance, but when Alcaraz missed a forehand on set point, Rinderknech rallied to claim the set.
Rinderknech then broke Alcaraz to 15 at the start of the second set, but the World No. 1 broke straight back and soon began to overwhelm his opponent. He broke the Frenchman three more times across the remaining two sets to seal the win, and produced a perfect third set on serve, winning all four of his service games to love.
Although expressing some frustration at having to face such high levels from opponents in the early stages of tournaments, Alcaraz also acknowledged that it may simply be something he has to deal with while he is at the top of the game.
“You know, all can I do is just accept it, keep it going, trying to, like, do different things in the match, trying to, you know, try not to let him be aggressive or playing his style, trying to, you know, put my style, my tennis, my level into the match and trying to turn around the things that what I try to do. But obviously the first thing is just accept it.
“I don’t know. I feel like I have a target on my back, and I feel like if they don’t play that kind of tennis they can’t win or it is what I think they could think.”
Speaking on how he turned the match around after going a set and a break down, Alcaraz remained measured and composed in his assessment of the situation.
“Well, in the beginning I was a little bit mad with myself, because I just had a lot of chances in the first set, a few breakpoints, set point, and I couldn’t make it.
“So I feel like I just left a lot of great chances for me. Sometimes difficult to accept it, but, you know, in the beginning of the second set, he played such a great level, you know, in the game that he broke my serve. So, yeah, just accept it, be strong mentally, stay calm as much as I can. Trying to keep going.
“I knew that I was going to have more chances, and if I wasn’t there, I can’t take that, I can’t take them. The first mainly thing is to stay there all the time, try to win my serve game, try to put pressure on his serve games, and let’s see what happens, but obviously in the best way possible.”
Alcaraz will face Norwegian 13th seed Casper Ruud in the Last 16.
