"Why should he care about what anybody says?" - Jimmy Connors feels Carlos Alcaraz should ignore opinions of others about his schedule

Jimmy Connors has advised Carlos Alcaraz to pay no attention to opinions or criticism about his schedule. The American great feels that Alcaraz should focus on what works for him and continue along that path, even if it is unpopular among others.

Connors' defense of Alcaraz comes after claims from fans and experts that the 19-year-old erred by playing back-to-back claycourt events on his comeback to the tour. Many believe Alcaraz would have been better off playing hardcourt events in Rotterdam, Doha, and the like over the past few weeks.

The World No. 2 marked his comeback by playing and winning the Argentina Open last week. As of writing, he is into this week's Rio Open final.

According to eight-time Slam champion Connors, the most important priority for Alcaraz is to regain his confidence at the earliest after a long layoff. Connors stated that Alcaraz should do whatever he is comfortable with in order to find his best level of tennis again.

"Why should he (Carlos Alcaraz) even give a sh*t about what anybody thinks or says?" Jimmy Connors said on the Advantage Connors podcast. "It's his career, his body, his confidence to come back and get back to where he was before the injuries."

Connors further opined that all that matters for Alcaraz is to get back into a good rhythm ahead of the big events, starting with Indian Wells and going up to Wimbledon.

"Why should he really care about what anybody thinks or says? It's all about what's good for him to get back to where he wants to be to play in these big events coming up," the 70-year-old added.

Connors took further aim at Alcaraz's critics before further urging the reigning US Open to focus on his own plans and work towards his goal of chasing more titles. Carlos Alcaraz is set to take on Cameron Norrie in Sunday's Rio Open final, in a repeat of last week's Argentina Open final, which Alcaraz won 6-3, 7-5.

"My new line now is, everybody is worrying about what he does, if they worried so much about what they did, there wouldn't be a problem," Connors continued.

"He's doing what's best for him to get that confidence going into..with Wimbledon, the French (Open), the (Masters) 1000s...So what difference does it make what anybody else says? Go do your own thing and be happy and satisfied with that."

"He made a good choice" - Jimmy Connors on Carlos Alcaraz's comeback schedule

Carlos Alcaraz in action at the ATP 500 Rio de Janeiro 2023.

Jimmy Connors also thinks that playing on any kind of surface in any tournament is useful for a player on the comeback trail. The 109-time title winner feels Carlos Alcaraz made the right call by playing back-to-back clay-court events on his return, since playing on his favored surface and finding his feet again would only benefit the youngster going forward.

"There's a big difference between practicing and playing matches. So he goes out and plays matches, he's playing against competition, he's getting his conditioning, he's getting his game in order which is only going to prepare him for what's down the road," Connors said.

"I think that he made a good choice. Why jump in? Sometimes it's good to get your feet wet first when you're coming back into it," he added.

Carlos Alcaraz will enter the Rio Open final on an eight-match winning streak. During his layoff, he missed the 2022 ATP Finals and the Australian hard-court swing, including the 2023 Australian Open.

Alcaraz is now also aiming to regain the world No. 1 ranking, currently held by Novak Djokovic.