Carlos Alcaraz admits snatching the World No. 1 rank from Novak Djokovic is his objective for the remainder of the season

Carlos Alcaraz talked about his recent battle with tennis great Novak Djokovic for the World No.1 spot, suggesting it is a motivating factor for him.

Carlos Alcaraz admits snatching the World No. 1 rank from Novak Djokovic is his objective for the remainder of the season

Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. (credits: Sportstar-The Hindu, The Independent)

Former World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz has been taking some time off after his disastrous semi-final loss against Daniil Medvedev in the US Open, thereby failing to defend his title successfully. With Novak Djokovic back to being in the spot that he enjoys the most, Alcaraz looks back on his lost World No. 1 spot ahead of the China Open, which starts this week. 

In the recent press conference, the Spaniard talked about how much he enjoyed being in the same sentence with the 24-time Grand Slam winner for most of the year, terming it a “beautiful battle”. He also congratulated Novak on his impressive stint in America with title wins at the US Open and the Cincinnati Masters, which led to Djokovic leapfrogging him in terms of rankings. 

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Alcaraz said, “We have a really beautiful battle to be world #1, especially after the great performance Novak had in America. Right now he is number one, so I come here with extra motivation to try to get him back & place first in the Race… Like I said, it’s something that I keep in mind every time I’m training, I think about it in every tournament.”

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He further continued, “It is not mandatory for me to recover it either, but we have to set goals for the year. For me, the #1 position is one of my main objectives, so in these big tournaments I am going to go for it, to try to do well to be close & recover it.”

Also Read: Maria Sharapova breaks the hearts of fans by admitting to not missing the sport as she attends the opening day of the US Open 2023

Who are the favorites for the upcoming China Open?

With the China Open beginning this week, many fans have marked this as one of the toughest ATP 500 tournaments considering the number of stars featured in the competition. After the draw was released, it was evident that Alcaraz would start as the top-seeded player and would thereby receive a very straightforward first-round matchup against any one of the qualifiers following Novak’s non-participation in the competition. 

Holger Rune, Daniil Medvedev and Carlos Alcaraz. (credits: NDTV Sports, CNN, Marca.com)

The second-seeded Daniil Medvedev is the other favorite for the competition, who recently got the better of Alcaraz in the US Open, followed by third- and fourth-seed players Holger Rune and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Andrey Rublev, Jannik Sinner, Casper Ruud, and Alexander Zverev are the other top names in line for the silverware as well. 

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