Carlos Alcaraz is aiming to end the year world number one as he looks to win his first ever Cincinnati title.
The Spaniard has had an eventful last couple of months which started by defending his Roland Garros title with an epic win over Jannik Sinner.
That was followed up by narrowly losing the Wimbledon in four sets to the Italian, who earned his revenge.
Speaking on his rivalry with the world number one Alcaraz is grateful for the opportunity to learn from one of the best in the world, “I’m just really happy to be building such a great rivalry against Jannik,” Alcaraz told the ATP website.
“Jannik and I, I think we’ve done great things in tennis already in such a short period. I just let the people talk about our rivalry or the things that we have done for the history books in tennis. I’m not thinking about the history we’re making in tennis. I think we have such a long career ahead to see how far we can go and if we already made or [did not make] history in tennis. It’s just for the people to discuss.
“It was new, but to be honest you have to be ready for that. Myself, obviously I didn’t want to lose any finals that I played, even more if it was a Wimbledon final or a Grand Slam final. But I left the court happy, I left the court proud. I left the court smiling just thinking, ‘Okay, at some point I have to lose a Grand Slam final. Everyone did’. So just proud.
“[There are] a lot of things that I have to improve from that match. It took me hours, not even days. So I just have to be grateful for everything that I am achieving, that I am living and being in a Wimbledon final was more than that. So even though I lost it, I just left the court proud and happy for everything I did.”
It’s been a great season for Alcaraz but the Spaniard wants to achieve more goals for the rest of the season.
The world number two has his eyes on the year-end world number one but currently trails by over 3,000 points.
However, Alcaraz isn’t fazed by the task ahead of him as he looks to be at the top of the pile by the end of the year, “I’m really happy with everything that I’m doing so far and I’m going to try to keep it in the same way,” Alcaraz explained.
“[There] are lot of things that I just really wanted to add to my game to be better in the matches, but right now my goal is the same: to be happy, to enjoy my time on and off the court in the best tournaments that we have in the world.
“Obviously a goal that I have in the matches [and] everything is just trying to recover No. 1 at the end of the year. So that is my goal in this second part of the year.”
Alcaraz will take on Mattia Bellucci or Damir Dzumhur in his first match on Sunday.
