World No. 32 Carlos Alcaraz revealed his aim for the upcoming season in a recent interview. He believes that achieving a spot inside the top-15 rankings will be a step in the right direction for him.
Carlos Alcaraz made giant strides in the 2021 season. Beginning the year as the World No. 141, the 18-year-old won his maiden ATP title at the 2021 Croatia Open in Umag. He then won the ATP Next-Gen Finals to end the year at 32 in the ATP rankings.
In a recent interview with Puntodebreak, Alcaraz mentioned that the "biggest disappointment" for him would be not learning from the mistakes he made this year.
"For me, a disappointment would be to fall into the same thing I have fallen this year, repeat the things I have been doing wrong, not grow, remain stagnant, that would be a great disappointment for me. Personally, I think I have to keep growing, anything other than following that path would be bad news," Alcaraz said in the interview.
He further added:
"As for ranking, finishing top-15 is a good brand, although I know that it is now very difficult to move forward, but it is an ambitious challenge."
"You had to be calm and you had to think about the next game" - Carlos Alcaraz on not celebrating after his historic win against Stefanos Tsitsipas
Carlos Alcaraz made headlines after defeating the then World No.3 Stefanos Tsitispas in the third round of the 2021 US Open. He kept his calm and won the deciding set despite getting bageled by the Greek player in the fourth set. The scoreline read 6-3, 4-6, 7-6, 0-6, 7-6.
Alcaraz didn't celebrate much after his win against Tsitsipas. He revealed in the interview that he knows when to celebrate and be 'euphoric' on the court and when he needs to control his emotions.
"I am a person who knows perfectly well when it is time to celebrate and when you don't have to be euphoric. That was my best victory, an epic match, to this day I still see some points and I'm still excited," said the 18-year-old.
The Spaniard stressed that he would've celebrated if it were a final. He added:
"But it was the third round. There was a lot of tournament ahead, you had to rest easy and think about the next match against Gojowczyk. If that match had been a final, of course, I would have celebrated it in a big way."
Carlos Alcaraz will not feature at the 2021 ATP CUP. The Spaniard is expected to begin his season at the 2022 Australian Open. After his incredible 2021 season, it will be intriguing to see if the youngster manages to get his hands on his maiden Grand Slam title in 2022.
Also Read: Carlos Alcaraz is technically more complete than Rafael Nadal was at the same age: Toni Nadal