Mentally sharp, physically strong: Carlos Alcaraz redefines consistency in New York

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz believes that him arriving in a good shape, both mentally and physically, has played a key role in her near flawless performances at the US Open. The 22-year-old has been in a sublime form in the fourth and the final Grand Slam of the year where he has cemented his spot in the quarterfinal after beating France’s Arthur Rinderknech with a score of 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday.

It was Alcaraz’s fourth consecutive straight-set win in the competition. Alcaraz’s performance this year at the Flashing Meadows is a complete contrast to his performances last year towards the end of the season, where he struggled massively. The five-time Grand Slam winner was knocked out of the competition after losing in the second round.

Discussing how he managed to overcome his struggles in the later stages of the season this year, Alcaraz highlighted that arriving in good shape, both mentally and physically, helped him achieve that. Alcaraz also highlighted that he is not thinking about what happened last year, and his focus remains on producing the goods on the court as well as enjoying.

“Well, well, right now, I'm not I'm not thinking about last year anymore,” said Alcaraz. “I am just going to the court thinking like I'm playing well and just feeling great physically. I just hit the ball really well as well. So I'm thinking about playing my best tennis and enjoy myself. You know when I step on the court that is all I am thinking about. When I'm approaching every match, obviously, as I said before, trying to follow the goals that I set myself before the match. But a part of that, just trying to enjoy and make the most of the time, you know, on court. The truth is that I arrive very well, at the level of confidence I arrive quite well, I'm playing very well and above all, what gives me the most confidence is how I feel physically. Physically I feel very good, with zero problems, let's say taking care of little things, but in general zero problems, and that's what gives me a lot of confidence and tranquility. Obviously, the results are accompanying, I'm feeling the ball very, very well and we get to the quarterfinals with the truth that I'm feeling the ball spectacularly.”

Alcaraz further went on to highlight the importance of learning from the experience. Alcaraz stated that he learnt from where things went wrong last year and tried to improve it this year around. “Well, it could be, in the end we are turning one year old, we are learning from the experience,” said Alcaraz. “If we are more immature than before, we are doing something wrong, which is good, I am happy to see how I am progressing, how I am advancing mentally, how I am dealing with many things in a different way and the truth is that I can tell you that right now is the best moment mentally so far.”

Alcaraz has often being accused of being inconsistent, especially compared to his fiercest rival Italy’s Jannik Sinner who has been lauded for his incredible consistency. This year, however, Alcaraz has managed to work on that has been far more consistent. It is the first season in his career where he has managed to qualify for the quarterfinal of every Grand Slam. Talking about it, Alcaraz admitted that he wanted to address that issue and remains optimistic that people will not talk about his inconsistency anymore.

“Probably a lot of people have talked about that I am not as consistent as I should be,” said Alcaraz. “But at the same time, yeah, those stats are really great to know for me just to see that I'm making really good results in the really good tournaments. Obviously, sometimes I'm really hard with myself that the quarterfinal is not enough, semifinal is not enough sometimes. But you have to see more than the results. I have to see if I play well and realize that a semifinal or a quarterfinal in a Grand Slam is a pretty good result. So, but yeah, and I've been talking a lot about I should be better, you know, consistency, playing much better, the matches or whatever. So I think that's why a lot of people have talked about it as well. [Playing in the quarterfinal of every Grand Slam in a season means] that I am doing a good job, I think that in the end it is how you see yourself during each Grand Slam, in the end it is separated by many months and to see that I have started in a way, I have progressed, I have advanced, I have done a good job, that is what these good results tell me, that I have gone down the right path with my team, working on the things that I had to work on and above all, as I have said, one of the things is to want to start the year playing in a way and finish it playing the same or even better and I think that the results say that the consistency is going well.”

Alcaraz’s next round opponent will be the Czech Republic’s Jiri Lehecka. The 23-year-old cemented his spot in the last-eight of the mega-event after beating France’s Adrian Mannarino with a score of 7-6, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. Alcaraz, during the press talk, also spoke about how difficult of a challenge he is expecting it to be when he will face Lehecka.

“He's [Lehecka] really, really tough,” said Alcaraz. “It's kind of the same style like Arthur today. More consistency, big shots, big serve. I struggle every time that I play against him. There's no doubt about it. That means really how difficult it is to play against him. So it's going to be an interesting one. So I would say I've played a few times already this year. I won one, he beat me once. So I've got to see what I did good, what I did bad in those matches just to be ready and to be perfect in the quarterfinal.”