Carlos Alcaraz, who will play his first quarter-final at Roland-Garros on Tuesday, would like to avoid playing in the night session because he has already done so twice since the start of the tournament and that “recovery is more difficult“. The other quarter-final scheduled for Tuesday will pit Rafael Nadal, who will be 36 on Friday and who is aiming for a 14th coronation on Parisian clay, against the defending champion and world No.1 Novak Djokovic, 35. The Spaniard has let it be known that he would prefer to play during the day and the Serbian in the evening. “Honestly, that wouldn’t seem right to me. I have already played twice in the eveningAlcaraz, 19, said Sunday after qualifying for the quarterfinals at the expense of Russia’s Karen Khachanov. “I’m not saying that it bothers me to play in the evening, but obviously I have less recovery time, if I finish very late all the time. When you finish at midnight, with everything behind it, dinner, the physio, trying to come down in terms of adrenaline, it’s more difficult to recover“, he explained. “If I play a third time (in the evening), honestly it seems unfair to me“, he concluded. Alcaraz played their third-round match consecutively on Friday against Sebastian Korda and then their round of 16 on Sunday in the night session.
