Reflections of Carlos Alcaraz's Grand Slam season
On Friday night, Carlos Alcaraz was en route to the John F. Kennedy International Airport to return to Murcia after bowing out in the second round of the US Open to Botic van de Zandschulp, who defeated the Spaniard in three sets in one of the biggest upsets of the season.
Alcaraz, who posted a photo on social media bidding farewell to the fans at the tournament until next year, ended his participation in the 2024 Grand Slams on Thursday with a return that he surely would have taken at the start of the year.
Below, ATPTour.com reflects on the 21-year-old’s season at this year’s majors.
AUSTRALIAN OPEN: QUARTER-FINALS
Alcaraz arrived in Melbourne to play his first tournament on the calendar at the season’s first Grand Slam. He beat Richard Gasquet (first round), Lorenzo Sonego (second), Juncheng Shang (third) and Miomir Kecmanovic (last sixteen) before meeting Alexander Zverev in the quarters. In that round, German sent Spaniard packing after four sets, ending his title hopes.
“I honestly don’t know what happened,” Alcaraz said later. “I’d love to say what might have happened, but I wasn’t feeling my game at the start of the match, with a lot of errors that I wasn’t making in previous matches, and my serve was very bad too…” he added.
“These kinds of things shouldn’t happen to me; I can play well, I can play badly, but I can’t have zero feel in my shots, that can’t happen and it’s something we have to improve.”
FRENCH OPEN: CHAMPION
Up to the quarter-finals, Alcaraz enjoyed a relatively easy run in Paris, defeating J.J. Wolf in round one, Jesper de Jong in the second round, Sebastian Korda in the third, Felix Auger-Aliassime in the last sixteen and Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarters. However, the semi-finals (Jannik Sinner) and the final (Zverev) were real dog fights that were decided in set five, and Alcaraz was just a set away from going home, as Sinner and Zverev both had the Murcia man on the ropes at 2-1.
“We’re still so excited to be here,” admitted Alcaraz. “I see videos of when I was young, here in Paris, under the Eiffel Tower, watching Roland Garros. And years later I’m lifting the Musketeers’ Trophy… they’re beautiful moments and it’s especially exciting for me.”
[ATP APP]WIMBLEDON: CHAMPION
Weeks after claiming the crown at Roland Garros, Alcaraz arrived in Wimbledon as the defending champion (he had beaten Novak Djokovic in 2023’s final).
After making easy work of the early rounds, sinking Mark Lajal and Aleksandar Vukic, the Spaniard came through a five-set tussle with Frances Tiafoe, who was just one set from victory. Against Uno Humbert, Tommy Paul and Daniil Medvedev, the world No. 3 needed four sets to progress, before facing Djokovic in the final, where he sealed his successful title defence in three sets.
“It’s a question of fighting and believing, I’m so happy to be at the same table as Djokovic,” said the Murcia native. “But I still don’t consider myself a champion of his stature.”
US OPEN: SECOND ROUND
Without a doubt one of the biggest upsets of 2024. Having got past Li Tu in the first round, where he dropped a set, Alcaraz was caught off-guard by a stunning performance from Van de Zandschulp, who played some brilliant tennis to send the 21-year-old 2022 US Open champion packing.
“Right now I feel like I’ve gone backwards mentally and I don’t understand why,” said Alcaraz. “I had a spectacular summer at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. I left those tournaments saying that I’d taken a step forward mentally. I’d realised that to win big things, to win Grand Slam titles, you have to be mentally strong,” added the Spaniard. “And now I’ve reached this swing and I’ve taken steps backwards, like I’m not doing well mentally, I’m not strong. I don’t know how to control myself when faced with problems and I don’t know how to handle it.”
In 2025, very soon, Alcaraz will be presented with four more chances to shine on the big stage.
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