Carlos Alcaraz has entered for the first time in his career in the second week of the
Australian Open after eliminating Juncheng Shang in the third round, who ended up retiring. Naturally, after the duel, the Spaniard regretted this circumstance:
"This is not the way anyone wants to go through the round, I wish him the quickest possible recovery, he was playing very well and wanted to play this match, I felt very good in the first two sets, it's a pity."
On having faced a younger opponent for the first time in his career, he commented the following amidst laughter and applause from the packed Rod Laver Arena crowd:
Tennis is growing at the moment and there are more and more young players on the circuit, I'm happy to have played against a younger player".
Since the duel lasted so little time, he was asked if he was going to leave for lunch or to train for a while and he assured that he was going to talk to his team.
"I've been eating every day at the Spanish restaurant, that's where I've been getting my energy from. I was feeling good on track, we'll see what we do (whether to eat or train)."
He finished by saying that he is delighted to be able to play Australia after missing the 2023 edition due to injury and that he hopes to continue with the good feelings:
"I missed the tournament last year, it's the first time I've made it to the second week in Australia, it's crazy. Coming into this tournament this year trying to improve on what I did in 2022 and I've done that. Now it's time to keep going, play better and better and try to keep advancing rounds."