"Mentally I’m more mature":Alcaraz admits different perspective than 12 months ago

Carlos Alcaraz stumbled in the Roland Garros quarter-final last year against Zverev and this year he's ready to take it further than that targetting the trophy.

Alcaraz amazed many with his incredible level last year but his level this year hasn't been any worse. In many cases, it's been better as he holds a 30-3 record on the season ahead of Roland Garros. He has a clear goal of winning the event as he sees himself capable of doing that thanks to a newfound maturity.

“Talking about tennis, I would say I’m the same player than last year, only change that I would say is that I’m more mature. Mentally I’m better. And I can read what happened on court better than last year. For me, it’s really, really important, and I would say it’s the most different than last year.”

This will be the first grand slam of his 2023 campaign as he missed the Australian Open. It was tough for him:

“For me was really, really tough, because talking about Australia, it was a tournament that I really wanted to play. I thought that I had the opportunity to do a good result in Australia, and yeah, got injured and had, let’s say, yeah, four, five weeks to recover that injury. It was tough. But the same time, I’m a guy who looks the positive things about everything. It was a good time for me to prepare, you know, the rest of the season, you know, and being more prepared about everything what was coming in that time."

Thanks to an early exit from Novak Djokovic in Paris, Alcaraz will be the top seed in Paris. It's something he's yet to fully grasp:

“It’s still crazy to see myself top seed in a Grand Slam. But for me, at same time is great. Is something that I work for to be there. Yeah, I’m really happy to be No. 1 seed here in Roland Garros.”