Alcaraz Turns Page On Wimbledon, Targets Cincy Crown

No. 2 Seed: ‘I’m Coming Stronger Into Cincy; It’s A Tournament I Love Playing’

By Richard Osborn

Carlos Alcaraz was a perfect five-for-five in major singles finals, his most recent triumph coming at Roland Garros when Jannik Sinner squandered three championship points in a record five-and-a-half-hour epic. But a third straight Wimbledon title wasn’t in the cards for the 22-year-old all-courter, who fell 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to his chief rival and for the first time had to settle for the runner-up hardware.

“It was a new experience, but you have to be ready for that,” said Alcaraz, a Cincinnati Open finalist in 2023. “Obviously, I didn’t want to lose. It’s a Wimbledon final. But I left the court happy. I left the court proud. I left the court smiling. At some point, I had to lose a Grand Slam final. There are a lot of things that I have to improve from that match, but it took me hours, not days [to get passed it]. I have to be grateful for everything that I’ve achieved, that I’m living.”

If you’ve seen the Spaniard’s three-episode Netflix docuseries, “Carlos Alcaraz: My Way”, you know that he likes to unwind, to reset between Grand Slams with those closest to him. That’s exactly what he did post-Wimbledon.

“Just being with friends, with family. Having three weeks at home in the summer was something I couldn’t believe,” said Alcaraz, the No. 2 seed this year in Cincinnati. “I just tried to make the most of my time with everyone, trying to refresh my mind. I’m coming stronger into Cincy; It’s a tournament I love playing.”

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Alcaraz said he didn’t pick up a racquet the first week of his mid-season break. In fact, he confessed, he even begged out of morning jogs with his pals, opting instead to sleep in.

“When I’m off, I’m off,” he said. “I don’t step in the gym at all. I’m just waiting for them with breakfast.”

Alcaraz was out of sorts the last time he played at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. During an opening-round 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 loss to French vet Gael Monfils in 2024, he uncharacteristically pulverized his racquet on the court, a rare outburst for which he later apologized. (“I am human,” wrote Alcaraz on social media, though given his otherworldly athleticism we sometimes wonder if that’s altogether true.)

Now focused on the North American hard-court campaign, Alcaraz hopes to gear up for the US Open with another deep run in Cincinnati. A strong summer finish would do wonders to help him recapture the No. 1 ranking.     

“Right now, my goal is to keep doing the right things,” he said. “I’m really happy with everything I’m doing. I’m going to try to keep it the same way. There are a lot of things that I want to add to my game, but right now I want to be happy, to enjoy my time on and off the court.”

Are we in for an Alcaraz vs. Sinner final in Cincy? It would come as little surprise. Between them, after all, they have now accounted for eight of the last nine Slam singles titles. But neither of them, says Alcaraz, is getting too caught up in the ‘Sincaraz’ hype: They’ll leave the chatter for us.   

“I’m just really happy to be building such a great rivalry against Jannik,” he said. “Jannik and I, I think we’ve done great things in tennis already, in such a short period. But I just let other people talk about our rivalry, the things that we have done for the history books in tennis. I’m not thinking about the history we’re making. We have such a long career ahead of us, just to see how far we can go. If we have already made history or not is just for others to discuss.”