MADRID, 18 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz managed the Wimbledon final this Sunday against the Serbian Novak Djokovic “in a different way” because he learned “a lot” from what happened to him in the Roland Garros semifinals, and assured that he was “stuck” at listen to the flattery of his rival after the match.
“I learned a lot from that match and I knew it would be different if I faced him again. You learn from mistakes and I think I’m a guy who does that quite well. I managed it differently, you can’t get stuck in the mistakes he makes but rather learn and improve,” he said in an interview on Monday on ‘El Larguero’ on the SER chain, the Murcian, who in that game in Paris suffered from cramps due to stress.
The world number one confessed that he “still” had not “assimilated” his victory. “I look at my family and my team and I say to myself ‘I’m a Wimbledon champion’. It’s hard to believe it yourself, it’s something very big,” stressed the man from El Palmar.
He tried to show “tranquility” during the final against the winner of 23 ‘Grand Slams’. “But inside it is totally different, but it is also about that, to show the other serenity,” he warned, stressing that at the moment of victory he entered “a moment of ‘shock'”.
“Djokovic told me that I deserved it and that it was very well done. We couldn’t talk much on the net either, it was a moment of many emotions for me too,” said Alcaraz, who was left “stuck” when he heard the Serbian say on the press conference that he had never played anyone against him. “He has played with the great legends of our sport, people I admire, with super epic finals and matches against them and that he can say that he has not played against another like me is crazy,” he was honest.
Of the match, the young Spanish tennis player admitted that he did not get nervous after the 6-1 of the first set. “It helped me to think that I wasn’t playing badly, that’s what I felt. There were options that I didn’t take advantage of and playing against someone like Djokovic, if you don’t take advantage of your opportunities, it takes a toll on you and you’re trailing. I knew that if I showed up close I was going to have my opportunities and try that when the opportunity presented itself to me, take advantage of it and go up”, he remarked.
And a key moment was winning the ‘tie-break’ of the second set, which he faced against an opponent who had won the last 15 in ‘Grand Slam’ that he had played. “Totally. Honestly, it’s not easy to play a ‘tie-break’ against someone who hasn’t lost for 15, but it was a Wimbledon final and a ‘big one’, and if you fall apart because of a statistic, you’re not prepared to play those kinds of moments. I had to try to continue in my line and it was crazy to close that set, it gave me a lot of confidence to continue in that line”, he stated.
Finally, Alcaraz believes that his “simplicity both on the track and off” is one of the keys to generating so much expectation. “I practically don’t change anything, I’m still a very close boy and I don’t have a problem standing up with people, signing them and taking photos, that helps,” he commented.
“Also, someone young who gives ‘war’ to people who have been there for a long time always attracts more attention, and also the way I play, very dynamic, where you never know what can happen, not even I often know what is going to happen and that takes its toll on me”, sentenced the Murcian.