Carlos Alcaraz, 19 years old and world No. 1, has said that he is prepared to play his first pre-season match without problems, this Saturday (4:00 p.m.) against the Russian Andrey Rublev in the semifinals of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi on hard court.
“I feel good. I had a month to recover and now I feel almost 100%. This year I am a target for everyone, for me it is going to be a little different and I have to be ready for it. I am going to try to finish in 2023 in the same position as now.
It’s going to be a long season, but I’m going to enjoy it”, said Alcaraz, who is celebrating the return of Novak Djokovic without restrictions. “I want to see Novak in every tournament. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best player in the world.
Tennis is better with the best players in the world on the court”, added the Murcian. The Serb missed many 2022 tournaments, including the Australian Open and the US Open, due to his refusal to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, but he will now be able to play normally next season.
Most Improved Player of the Year Award Praise for Carlos Alcaraz’s impressive breakthrough in 2022 has come from far and wide. Now, his colleagues have taken the opportunity to recognize the 19-year-old’s remarkable rise to No.1 in the world choosing him as the Most Improved Player of the year at the ATP Awards.
“I am very happy to receive this award, and I want to thank all my colleagues who voted me Most Improved Player of the Year,” Alcaraz said. “For me it is an incredible achievement. This year has been really good for me, a dream year for me, and I’m looking to improve on the year in 2023.
Thank you very much.”
Carlos Alcaraz won the 2022 US Open
Carlos Alcaraz was recently commended by a well-known tennis journalist for outstanding achievements in his young career. “In Alcaraz, he looks like the real deal for anything that you can use to measure his success by, and the fact that the first one he got ended up being at the US Open, which, I don’t think that’s what people would have predicted, I think that’s a good sign that he’s the man for all seasons and all surfaces,” he noted on the Court-side with Beilinson Tennis podcast.
“He seems eager. He seems like a hard worker. He seems not to be taken by the trappings of having become No. 1. He seems to have his head on his shoulders. I mean, it’s really hard to know the truth of what goes on, but all signs point to ‘This guy is gonna be great’, and if he got (No. 1) as a teenager, that’s a good sign,” Haber added.
