Carlos Alcaraz He was the first tennis player to arrive in Turin to prepare for the ATP Finalsthe penultimate tournament of his season and the last one he will play representing himself. The other event that remains for him is the Davis Cup finals, where the Murcian will try to get Spain to win its seventh bowl. However, that will be next week and now what concerns him is the Masters Cup.
The young Spaniard has never managed to lift this title, which also eluded him. Rafa Nadal. The only Spanish player to win it was Alex Corretjain 1998. Since then, Rafa tried in 11 appearances – reaching the fight for the title in 2010 and 2013 – and Carlitos has tried his luck twice. The Spaniard was never able to win the trophy and so far the Murcian’s best performance has been reaching the semi-finals. He needs to improve if he wants to win.
Carlitos also knows that to win the title he will have to give his best level and a little more. If it were on another surface, perhaps a good version would be enough, but on a fast indoor track Jannik Sinner it’s a lot Jannik Sinner. The Italian plays at home, in Turin, and is a true expert on indoor hard courts. Proof of this is that he has not lost a match in tournaments with these conditions since November 2023.
He fell to Novak Djokovic in the final of the Masters Cup after having beaten them in the group stage of that same tournament. What’s more, Nole qualified for the playoffs thanks to the fact that Sinner won his three games and did him the ‘favor’, because if he loses to Holger Rune the Serbian would have ended his career in that tournament. It was not like that because the Italian, always ambitious, wanted to have the perfect tournament, something he would end up achieving last season by winning all his games 2-0.
Alcaraz sharpens his weapons
Having presented the beast that Carlos Alcaraz will presumably have to beat to win the ATP Finals, now let’s go with what the Murcian has incorporated for this tournament. The Murcian knows that his failure in Paris Masters 1000 It was that he rushed and made countless unforced errors. Therefore, now you must better select the moment to look for the winner and also have the ability to throw them with your backhand. On indoor courts it is not as easy as on clay to reverse to the forehand. Normally there is no time, so the backhand also has to be direct.
That is what Carlitos has been training during these two weeks and it was noticeable against De Miñaur in a match in which he accumulated up to 11 winners with this blow. Whether crossed or parallel, the Murcian felt very comfortable with the ball and the average speed was 108 kilometers per hour. That is, it flew on the runway during several sections of the crash. «With the setback we have put a lot of emphasis in training. In Paris I also tried to use those changes but it didn’t work. There is no better feeling that when plans go well,” he explained at the end of the game.
Thus, the setback will be an important ally for Alcaraz in this tournament where they also play to finish the season as number 1. The event is so important that Carlitos has taken his two coaches, Juan Carlos Ferrero y Samu Lópezto be able to correct any aspect that does not work. He wants to win glory and knows that his backhand, which is also Sinner’s best shot, may be one of the keys.
