“We\u2019re back, Madrid!” read the message Carlos Alcaraz scrawled on the camera straight
\nafter winning his first-round match. He came through his first match since losing to Grigor
\nDimitrov in Miami with a resounding 6-2, 6-1. In his post-match press conference, there
\nwas a good deal of interest about how the Murcia native was feeling on court.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was my first match since Miami, my level was great. I want to play many more matches
\nand get more hours on court and on clay. Hopefully I can get as close as possible to 100%
\nhere in Madrid. He has ticked off the first jobs on his to-do list: a win, hours on court and,
\nabove all, no pain. \u201cI\u2019m taking it match by match, I go out on court and I want to win. The
\nmain thing is that I didn\u2019t feel anything in my forearm. Now I have to try and enjoy myself
\non court and if I feel good, the game and the results will come. I want to get more game
\ntime without feeling it. Today I didn\u2019t hit it as hard. The important thing is not feeling the
\npain. I\u2019m very happy I didn\u2019t feel it and I\u2019ll gradually ramp up the intensity\u201d.
\nCarlitos is an aggressive player who enjoys hitting the ball with venom, but he is aware of
\nhis limitations. However, the 20-year-old Spaniard is always able to see the silver lining:
\n\u201cI\u2019ve always been a player who hits the ball very hard and playing more relaxed is
\nunnatural for me, but I prefer it. In fact it helps me in a lot of ways, to be calmer and think
\nmore clearly\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Spaniard admitted he was unsure if he could play in the tournament until the last
\nminute. \u201cYesterday I decided I can play, I haven\u2019t touched my racket for a week. Yesterday
\nI played a set with Medvedev and I realised that I was ready and I didn\u2019t feel any
\ndiscomfort\u201d.<\/p>\n
His victory today over Shevchenko was a significant one, a fact that was reflected in his
\ncelebrations with his team: \u201cWe\u2019ve done so much work in recent weeks, there was a lot of
\nuncertainty, that\u2019s why I wanted to celebrate like that with my team. We\u2019re doing great
\nwork together\u201d, concluded the El Palmar native.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz is bidding to claim his third consecutive crown in Madrid at a venue that suits his
\ngame to a tee: \u201cThe altitude is good for me. I\u2019ve played in Madrid since I was little and I\u2019m
\nvery comfortable. The altitude benefits my game and the energy of the fans really spurs
\nme on\u201d. A perfect combination.<\/p>\n
In the next round he will meet Brazilian player Thiago Seyboth Wild whom he has never
\nplayed, despite being familiar with his game: "He\u2019s a very good player, with a lot of shots.
\nToday he beat Musetti and he\u2019s on a roll. I\u2019ve seen him several times and I think his level
\nis very high\u201d.<\/p>\n
Asked about Nadal\u2019s swansong, he voiced what everyone in Madrid is thinking: \u201cI still don\u2019t
\nwant to think about it. Nobody wants to imagine the tour without Rafa. I want to enjoy
\nevery moment as much as possible. Every time he can go out on court, I\u2019ll be there to
\nenjoy it. Let\u2019s enjoy the moment\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“We\u2019re back, Madrid!” read the message Carlos Alcaraz scrawled on the camera straight after winning his first-round match. He came through his first match since losing to Grigor Dimitrov in Miami with a resounding 6-2, 6-1. In his post-match press conference, there was a good deal of interest about how the Murcia native was feeling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":93883,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[838,824,837],"tags":[825,826,840],"class_list":["post-93911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias-tenis-masculino-en","category-noticias-mutua-en","category-noticias-tenis-en","tag-atp-en-2","tag-caja-magica-en-2","tag-carlos-alcaraz-en-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93911","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\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93916,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93911\/revisions\/93916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}