Hey there, fellow tennis enthusiasts It’s your girl Mia Johnson-Carter here, living the dream in Miami. Today, I’m super excited to dive into a fascinating story about one of the hottest young players in the game—Carlos Alcaraz. His season has been nothing short of incredible, but it can also close with a very negative record.
Carlos Alcaraz’s 2024 has been a rollercoaster ride filled with amazing highlights and some surprising defeats. He has won the historic French Open-Wimbledon double, triumphed at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, and secured victory at the China Open. Additionally, he took home an Olympic silver medal. These achievements are truly remarkable and show just how far he’s come in such a short time.
However, his latest defeat at the Paris Rolex Masters might have a significant impact on his season. Despite being the big favorite against Ugo Humbert, Carlos went out in three hard-fought sets. This loss allowed Alexander Zverev to take advantage and overtake Alcaraz in the ATP ranking, climbing to 2nd position. As a result, Carlos is now ATP No. 3 and risks obtaining a rather surprising record—finishing the season outside of the Top-2 despite winning two Major titles.
After the defeat against Humbert, Carlos complained about the surface problem of the indoor court: “I wouldn’t say that the problem is the indoor courts. I would say that the problem is this court. I don’t want to make excuses because Ugo deserved to win but for example I played in the Davis Cup indoors and the courts were much slower than this one.” He further noted that it is probably the fastest court in the Masters 1000 in recent years.
In any case, Carlos Alcaraz is – together with Jannik Sinner – one of the absolute protagonists of this 2024 season. Both players have shared the number of Slams; Jannik has triumphed at the Australian Open and US Open.
Meanwhile, Zverev, who beat Holger Rune in the semifinals in Paris-Bercy, has obtained his result, becoming ATP No. 2 and earning a privileged place in view of the draw at the ATP Finals. This could mean he avoids meeting Sinner in the round robin of the year-end Master. An opportunity absolutely exploited by Zverev, who emphasized his continuous efforts to improve: “I’m trying, I’m working on different things too. Tennis doesn’t stop. You have to keep finding ways to improve, especially because of the level that Sinner and Alcaraz are showing at the moment.”
Humbert, after beating Alcaraz in front of his crowd, said at the press conference: “It’s the best win of my career, and it’s the best moment I’ve experienced on a tennis court. It’s incredible. I train for that. I tried to start very aggressively. Throughout the third set I was talking to myself. I was constantly talking to myself to tell myself that I wouldn’t give up until the end and it worked.”
If you want, you can check out the news where I found it here.
Yours truly,
Mia
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