“To win Olympic medals and Grand Slams” Carlos Alcaraz believes he is ‘on the right track to become World No. 1’
Carlos Alcaraz with his 2022 Rio Open trophy
Spanish teen sensation Carlos Alcaraz justified why is he called one of the brightest prospects on the ATP Tour after he defeated Argentine veteran Diego Schwartzman in the finals of the ATP-500 Rio Open 2022. Alcaraz won the finals 6-4, 6-2 as he lifted the trophy having dropped only two sets in the entire week in the South American continent.
The win in Rio was just his second career title having earlier won the Clay tournament at the 2021 Croatia Open. With an ATP-500 Clay title to his name already while still being a teenager, he has already overtaken the Big-3 with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic yet to win an ATP-500 clay title in their illustrious career.
As he picked up the trophy in Rio, Alcaraz talked about his goals for the 2022 season where he has so far made only two appearances. His 3rd round exit from the 2022 Australian Open was his first tournament of the season and the Spaniard seems to have set his goals clearly in what has been a fantastic start to his season as he has already broken into the Top-20 and is now the youngest to do so since 2005.
“I set myself the goal of not breaking out of the top 20 and continuing to progress little by little. I have several tournaments that I couldn’t play last year, it’s a great opportunity to continue to improve. This title gives me a lot of confidence in what I do because I consider that I am on the right track to be number 1 in the world.
“It is one of my objectives because I am a boy who dreams big and I would like to be able to win Olympic medals and Grand Slam titles. I know I will have opportunities to achieve this, but I also know how difficult it is to accomplish all of this,” said Alcaraz as reported by Welovetennis.fr.
Carlos Alcaraz withdraws from the 2022 Acapulco Open, to make Davis Cup debut
Alcaraz was set to travel to Mexico for the 2022 Acapulco Open after his week in Rio for participating in the ATP-500 Rio Open. He has however chosen to withdraw his name and will instead be headed home to Spain where he is scheduled to represent Spain in their Davis Cup tie in Marbella which will also be played on Clay.
Alcaraz’s positive test for Covid-19 last year during the 2021 Davis Cup Finals delayed his Davis Cup debut but he will be donning the Spanish jersey in the coming fortnight. Post his short stay with the Spanish national team, Alcaraz will be seen playing at the 2022 Indian Wells Masters and the 2022 Miami Masters as March will have only these two tournaments during the entire month on the Tour.
Sarthak Shitole
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