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While a possible withdrawal due to knee pain was announced at the beginning of the week, Carlos Alcaraz, after undergoing tests, is well lined up at the Rolex Paris Masters, and he feels pretty good. The youngest world number one in history, the Spaniard started his event well by taming Yoshihito Nishioka. This Thursday, he clearly stepped up his game against Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, 6-1, 6-3. In 71 minutes, the copy was clean with just a small setback in the middle of the second set, without consequence. For his first quarter-final in Bercy, Alcaraz will face Holger Rune, who defeated Andrey Rublev.
Alcaraz, who has been ranked No. 1 in the world since winning the U.S. Open, spoke about his status in a conference. “It’s a fantastic feeling, of course, to feel like the best player in the world. It’s just a number, mind you. It’s just a place in a ranking. It doesn’t mean I’m going to win in every game, every tournament. Any player can beat you at any time. That’s how I feel right now. To finish number one already is something. That’s all I can say. It’s been a fantastic year for me. I hope the next year will be like this one. I’m going to try to win the last few tournaments, I’m going to have a vacation, and then I hope to have a good pre-season to start the next season in the best way possible, in Australia. We have to focus on the Australian Open. It’s actually going to be a normal ending for me.”
To get to this point, the Spaniard inevitably had to make some sacrifices during his youth. “I couldn’t stay as much as I wanted to with my friends. Sometimes my friends would ask me out late at night. I had to get home earlier than everyone else. That’s what I had to give up. I was lucky though that I didn’t have to make any big sacrifices. I was able to spend quality time with my friends. I had to train hard with my team, but in the end, I would say I didn’t sacrifice that much.”
