MADRID, 14 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz returns to action this Thursday at the Cincinnati tournament, the seventh Masters 1000 of the season, after his silver medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and some rest.
The Murcia native skipped the event in the same category last week in Montreal (Canada) to catch his breath and, above all, digest an intense Olympic debut, which ended with a silver medal in singles and a doubles match to remember with Rafa Nadal on the clay of Roland Garros.
Alcaraz lost the final of Paris 2024 against Serbian Novak Djokovic after the triumphant march he had undertaken through Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Already a champion in Indian Wells and Miami, the El Palmar native wants another success for his record on North American soil, on his way to the US Open in 12 days.
The hard court in Cincinnati will also remind him of ‘Nole’, against whom he lost the tight final last year. The Spaniard hopes to change his mindset and surface and continue at a high level in the last third of the campaign with that US Open that he already won in 2022. Alcaraz will debut this Thursday in the second round of ‘Cincy’ against the Frenchman Gael Monfils, with whom he has a 2-0 advantage in previous duels, the last one this year in Miami.
The Murcia native has also regained the incentive to fight for the world number one spot, as he arrives in Ohio just 450 points behind the top-ranked player, Italian Jannik Sinner. “I’m focused on going to each tournament, thinking about playing great tennis, getting a good result just to improve in my career, and finishing the year as number one is one of my main goals right now. So I’m looking forward to doing it and we’ll see,” Alcaraz confessed.
Juan Carlos Ferrero’s pupil has a tough road ahead of him in Cincinnati if he wants to make up ground with Sinner, who is going down the other side of the draw. Holger Rune, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev are the possible rivals for an Alcaraz who is seeking to become the favourite in the North American hard court tour after already being the best on clay and grass.