With a proper summer time, Carlos Alcaraz have enjoyed these days in Tenerife. Specifically in Las Terrazas del Abama Resort Tenerife. He has done it as a “disconnection”, in the company of some friends, and also with the aim of recharging his batteries for the 2023 season. A different year that he will face from number one in the world ranking and knowing that “it will be complicated”. His intention to avoid negative incidents, to try that this privileged position within the ATP “does not weigh.”
“I think being a number doesn’t weigh on me, I take it as something normal, or at least I try to”, The tennis player from El Palmar recognized this Tuesday at a press conference held in the enclave he has chosen to spend several days relaxing in the company of his relatives. “I know that the season will be difficult and that I have to prepare a lot mentally, because I am the number one and I will go to the tournaments as a favourite, but I am clear about what to play, what my style should be and what I have to enjoy. That is the most important thing and what I have to do in every game”, argues the Murcian about what he is going to find in the coming months.
In the midst of his rest days in “a spectacular place” where he plans to “repeat”, Alcaraz reveals that the recovery from the muscle injury that caused him to miss the final stretch of this course “is going quite well”. “I am going slowly, with patience, but also with the desire to be able to return to normal training; I still have a few weeks left”, says the world number one, who has set the Australian Open (from January 16 to 29) as the first substantial challenge for 2023. “I want to start at the maximum from the first day and this is a good destination because it is similar to those that we will find in Australia”, he pointed out.
That Nadal does not retire
Questioned by Rafa Nadal, Alcaraz was blunt: “He has finished this year as number two, reaching the Finals, he has won two Grand Slams… He continues at a high level and I, if I were him, would not even consider retiring, because I note that he loves to play and that he loves tennis. It is a pleasure to see him on the court and as a tennis lover I would not like to see him retire”, he said of the Spaniard, while he did not hide his desire to try to “beat him head to head”, a series of duels that for now favors the Mallorcan 2-1. “I’m ambitious and I hope I can tie him or beat him,” he said, wishing “to reach at least half of the achievements” that Nadal has achieved.