After capturing back-to-back Grand Slam titles and a silver medal on the Paris Olympics, world quantity three Carlos Alcaraz stated certainly one of his key targets for the remainder of the season is to complete because the top-ranked participant on the earth.
The 21-year-old French Open and Wimbledon champion, who misplaced an exciting Olympic last to Novak Djokovic, returns to motion at this week’s Cincinnati Open, the place he can achieve floor on the Serb and Italian Jannik Sinner.
Alcaraz is 450 factors behind world primary Sinner within the ATP reside race to the season finale in Turin, the separate year-to-date standings that function a measuring stick for the year-end primary battle.
“Clearly being primary is a purpose each time that I’m (behind) and the race is a crucial rating for me. On the finish of the yr should you finish the race primary, within the rankings it’s fairly related, so that you’re going to finish primary,” Alcaraz stated.
ALSO READ | Rublev beats Matteo Arnaldi 6-4, 6-2 after rain delay to succeed in Toronto last
“So I’m actually centered on that. I’m centered on going to each match, excited about taking part in nice tennis, doing a great end result simply to get higher within the race. This yr, ending the yr as primary is certainly one of my major targets proper now.”
Final yr’s Cincinnati runner-up, Alcaraz will start his marketing campaign towards Gael Monfils or Alexei Popyrin as he returns to hardcourt tennis for the primary time since reaching the Miami quarter-finals in March.
The Cincinnati Open is a crucial tune-up occasion for the August 26-September 8 U.S. Open.
“I’m excited to play right here once more. Clearly nice recollections from final yr, reaching the ultimate, shedding a very tight and epic match (to Djokovic),” Alcaraz stated.
Djokovic withdrew from Cincinnati after his Olympic triumph.