The story of Carlos Alcaraz and the Mutua Madrid Open is something of a romance. From visiting the Caja M\u00e1gica aged six to watch his first matches on the professional tour, to winning the Under-12 event and then inscribing his name on the trophy alongside those of Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, Madrid is everything. I\u2019ve spent my last three birthdays playing here. But since I was little I\u2019ve celebrated many more birthdays coming to the tournament. I got to an age where I dreamed of being here and not just playing, but winning and lifting the trophy. It\u2019s super emotional. Madrid is super special to me and I remember that boy of 6, 7 or 8 years of age coming here for the first time to watch good tennis. Madrid is everything to me\u201d, remembered the Spaniard in his post-match press conference.<\/p>\n
When asked what advice he would give to any young player of the age and situation of the young boy he spoke of, Alcaraz said that the priority is \u201cenjoying the journey, because, in the end, you have to enjoy the first time you do everything. From travelling abroad, being with your parents, or your first professional match\u201d. But the current world No. 2 also touched on the importance of \u201cworking hard, but also having passion because, personally, when I was little there were a lot of days when I didn\u2019t want to make the sacrifice. But coming through those days with a good attitude and intensity is what counts\u201d.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz not only leaves the Caja M\u00e1gica with his second trophy in Madrid, but also with his tenth ATP title and fourth Masters 1000, which he considers to be \u201camazing achievements for me\u201d, saying that \u201cI\u2019m doing really great things and I feel very proud of my work. I\u2019m ambitious and now I\u2019ll take on Rome\u201d, in reference to his opportunity to return to world No. 1 next week in the Foro Italico.<\/p>\n
Of the final, in which he beat Jan-Lennard Struff in three sets (6-4, 3-6, 6-3), Alcaraz confessed, in the nearly two and a half hours of tennis, to have \u201cenjoyed more than I suffered, but there were moments in which it started to look very complicated and I smiled at my team a lot. Playing in front of my people, family, friends and the whole of Spain, I try to enjoy it as much as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only thing that I changed was being positive at the start of the third set and going for all my chances. I believe in my ability to play in the important moments. That\u2019s when I\u2019m able to do things different to the rest. That\u2019s why I\u2019m a \u2018finals player\u2019. I think I\u2019ve played twelve or thirteen and I\u2019ve only lost a few. I think I grow in the important moments and play my best\u201d, he continued.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz wanted to give credit to his entire team for their success, starting with his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero. \u201cIt\u2019s very important to have him giving me instructions. In a match like today\u2019s, there were problems and they see things from the outside that help me have tools to come through the problems. I\u2019m a player who, when I play badly, I\u2019m able to come through matches. 80% of the matches you play in a year, you won\u2019t play as well as you want. Knowing how to get through those days is worth double\u201d, concluded the now double Mutua Madrid Open champion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The story of Carlos Alcaraz and the Mutua Madrid Open is something of a romance. From visiting the Caja M\u00e1gica aged six to watch his first matches on the professional tour, to winning the Under-12 event and then inscribing his name on the trophy alongside those of Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. \u201cTo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":87090,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[824,838,875,999],"tags":[835,825,840,831,686],"class_list":["post-87092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias-mutua-en","category-noticias-tenis-masculino-en","category-mutua-news-en","category-tennis-en","tag-2023-es-en","tag-atp-en-2","tag-carlos-alcaraz-en-2","tag-mutua-madrid-open-en-2","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87092"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87188,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87092\/revisions\/87188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}