Carlos Alcaraz arrives at the Rolex Shanghai Masters riding a wave of momentum, but the Spaniard knows that staying mentally fresh will be key as the season enters its final stretch.
The 23-year-old lifted his third tour-level title of the year on Tuesday at the ATP 500 event in Tokyo, and he has quickly turned his attention to Shanghai, where he is ready to test himself again at the eighth ATP Masters 1000 event of the year.
Speaking ahead of his opening match, Alcaraz reflected on the importance of maintaining his mental freshness at this stage of the season, with plenty still to play for.
“I'm feeling fresh mentally, which for me it's the most important thing,” Alcaraz said in his pre-tournament press conference. “I'm ready to take the challenge of this tournament. If we see a couple years back, probably this swing or this part of the season, it's never been my best one.
“Right now, I just want to be in a good state for this tournament, because I really want to win the tournaments, this one and the tournaments that I have in a couple months at least one day. So right now, I think it's an extra boost that I have for the rest of the season.”
Alcaraz has good reason to appreciate the importance of feeling fresh at this stage of the season. The Spaniard missed more than four months with a wrist injury earlier this year, but has impressed since returning to action. Before his title run in Tokyo, the No. 3 player in the PIF ATP Rankings reached the US Open quarter-finals, where he fell to Ben Shelton in a dramatic fifth-set tie-break after a high-quality battle.
Alcaraz’s own experience of returning from injury has also given the Spaniard some perspective on the challenge facing fellow 23-year-old Holger Rune. The Dane recently returned from an 11-month layoff after suffering an Achilles injury in Stockholm last October and has lost his two ATP Tour matches since returning, in Tokyo and Shanghai.
Alcaraz trained with Rune for a week in Murcia in August and offered words of encouragement to the Dane in Shanghai.
“It's a slow process. The injury he had, it's a really complicated one because I would say the movement in tennis, I would say it's almost everything. I think his style is about the movement, to move well on court and cover the court as much as he can,” Alcaraz said.
“He might lose some matches right now, but personally I'm really happy to see him back on court. He came to Murcia to practice with me one week. Then I was seeing him playing good. It is about to get into matches, to get into the rhythm of competition, which is really, really important. I wish him all the best. I'm happy that he came back on tour. He has to be patient because it's going to be a slow process, but he's going to get to the point he wants to get.”
Alcaraz will face Juan Manuel Cerundolo or Colombian qualifier Nicolas Mejia in his opening match in Shanghai on Saturday. The Spaniard has never been beyond the quarter-finals at the hard-court event but is excited to be back competing in China, having missed the event last season.
“I just love it every time that I come here, because I think they appreciate good tennis, the matches, every time that you just walk around, I think it's great. The people are super into it,” Alcaraz said.
Alcaraz holds a 32-4 record on the season, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, and has already qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held from 15-22 November.
