"I saw him struggling a little bit. I was cramping" says Carlos Alcaraz but lesson learned from Djokovic loss in powering through

Carlos Alcaraz has reached his first Roland Garros final after beating Jannik Sinner in a marathon match of more than four hours that was decided in five sets. After the match, he spoke with Alex Corretja at the Philippe Chatrier and shared the joy of the victory after a hard-fought duel:

"You have to find the joy in suffering. That’s the key. Even more here on clay at Roland Garros. Long rallies. 4 hour matches. 5 sets. You have to fight and suffer. As I talked with my team many times, you have to enjoy suffering," said Alcaraz.

Regarding Sinner, he is clear that he will be the great rival of his career and that he will play against him many Grand Slams. He made it clear that the most complicated matches of his career have been played against the Italian.

“Probably. The toughest matches I’ve played in my short career have been against Jannik. US Open 2022.. this one.. that shows the great player Jannik is, the team he has, the great work he puts every day.. I hope to play many many more matches like this against Jannik. Yes, this was one of the toughest matches I’ve played for sure.”

Finally, he acknowledged learning from his loss to Novak Djokovic in the semis of 2023, when he collapsed mentally. His tennis has evolved and today he has found solutions thanks to the past suffering:

"I saw him struggling a little bit. I was cramping… Jannik as well in the 3rd set. We had to fight. I learned from last years match against Djokovic I was in the same position like today. I know in these moments you have to be calm and keep going because the cramp is gonna go away. You have to stay there and fight. It was a little weird in the 3rd set. The 4th set and 5th were really good points and great tennis. I’m happy about everything I’ve done today. Waiting for my moments until the last moment when I took it.”