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Carlos Alcaraz could get a sensational negative record

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Carlos Alcaraz’s season has been amazing, but it can close with a very negative record. The historic French Open-Wimbledon double, the triumph at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, the victory at the China Open and the Olympic silver medal are the highlights of his season, interspersed with some surprising defeats, the last one coming at the Paris Rolex Masters.

Carlos was the big favorite in the ATP Masters 1000 in Paris, especially after the withdrawal of Jannik Sinner, but he immediately went out in the challenge against the idol of the French crowd Ugo Humbert, who beat the young Spaniard in three hard-fought sets. Alexander Zverev – who reached the final of the tournament – took advantage of Alcaraz’s defeat, and overtook the Spaniard in the ATP ranking, climbing to 2nd position. The Spanish tennis player is now ATP No.3 and thus risks obtaining a rather surprising record.

As reported by journalist José Morgado, Carlitos can become the first tennis player who will not finish the season in the Top-2, despite winning two Major. A surprising fact, considering how Zverev played and lost the final of the French Open against Alcaraz.

After the defeat against Humbert, the young Spaniard also complained about a surface problem, analyzing: “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. I played the first match of the tournament and from the statistics it emerged that it is the fastest court in the Masters 1000. It is probably the fastest in the last ten years in this tournament.”

In any case, Alcaraz is – together with Sinner, the absolute protagonist of this 2024. The Spaniard and the Italian tennis player have shared the number of Slams: Jannik has in fact triumphed at the Australian Open and US Open.

In the meantime, Zverev, beating 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, certainly avoiding meeting Sinner in the round robin of the year-end Master. An opportunity absolutely exploited by the German tennis player, who, in a press conference, analyzed that it has been continuous in this 2024 season.

“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. Tennis is becoming so fast and aggressive that you have to find a way to make progress with your game. The first six months were very good for me, I played a lot of matches and I went far in a lot of tournaments. The last few months were a bit more difficult, I withdrew from some events due to health problems. I feel good. Obviously Carlos and Jannik are the best in the world right now, just look at the Slams they won this year. At the end of 2021 I felt like one of the best. I was going in the direction of becoming number 1 and I got injured, at Roland Garros I felt it was my chance to win a Slam but what happened happened. And everything got out of hand. I feel like this season I was a candidate, hopefully in 2025 it will be a little bit better and I can get closer to the Slam title. That’s still my goal.”

Humbert, after beating the young Spaniard 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. At Wimbledon I understood that I could bother him, in the Davis Cup he had beaten me clearly but here it was different. The crowd was really incredible and supported me. I was happy to give them this victory, because it was an important moment for me and it was nice to share it with them. I play well on this surface. I think Carlos is not the only one who feels this way about me. On both sides I hit very fast. I played a fantastic match and I love playing against the best players in the world. Bercy is my favorite tournament but I don’t want to make any predictions. I try to live the moment to the fullest.”

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