US OPEN

August 24, 2024

Carlos Alcaraz

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Carlitos, welcome back to New York. First of all, we all saw you had to stop your practice today. Can you update us on the status of your injury, if there is any.

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, I think it is okay. You know, I just stop my practice just for precaution. I didn't feel comfortable enough to keep practicing just in case if everything is going to be worse. But, you know, after a few hours later, I still feeling good, you know, my feet, so tomorrow I will try to be practicing again 100% without thinking about it, but today I'll take care about it.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. I'm curious, what about your game makes you so tough for your opponents?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, I think I'm always pushing my opponents to the limit. I'm trying to, you know, be aggressive all the time, just to play different shots, different kind of, yeah, kind of shots.

I think that I'm going to say the worst thing for my opponent, they are not going to know what's gonna be next. They have to be aggressive. They have to defend well if they want to be alive in the point.

I think I'm gonna say that's the worst thing for my opponents about my game.

Q. You haven't had a lot of matches on the hard courts coming into here. How, if at all, does that affect you? Do you come into a tournament like this not knowing maybe how well you can play, how you'll do, or that doesn't really matter for you?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, it doesn't matter for me. Obviously I have loved to have more matches on my belt on hard court before the US Open. But, I mean, it doesn't affect me at all. If I look back a little bit, you know, for example, facing the Roland Garros, I hadn't too much matches on clay, and it was a pretty good result. And then in Wimbledon, same thing, you know.

So I don't want to think that it's going to be the same, you know, than the previous two Grand Slams, but I'm not worried about not having too many matches on hard court.

Q. Obviously you're still very early in your career. There haven't been many big lows, never lost a Grand Slam final, only one five-set match lost in your career. I just wonder if that defeat at the Olympics, was that kind of the lowest you felt after a defeat? How were those emotions and were they new for you?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: After the Olympics?

Q. Yes.

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, this is one of the most important final of my career, of my life. I know that the Olympic Game is every four years, so I don't know if I'm gonna have another chance to win the gold. I'm gonna fight for it, for sure, the next Olympics Games.

But it was a difficult moment to deal for me, you know, losing the gold medal in a really close match that I had opportunities.

But, you know, in front of me, I had a really good player that he was fighting for the same thing as me, and he deserve it. So days after the Olympics was, okay, I realize that I won the silver medal, it was a great achievement for me that I have to be proud of.

You know, I try to keep going, try to learn about this match. Just the next finals or the next important matches of my career I gonna deal in a different way or a better way than I did in Olympics.

Well, I realize that it was an important moment of my life.

Q. Carlos, what are your thoughts about Jannik's drug situation?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, it's a really difficult moment for him, that's for sure. It is complicated. I mean, I'm not gonna lie, it is complicated.

But obviously what I can say? I mean, in English it's going to be difficult for me to explain myself, but I try.

Well, I believe in a clean sport. So I don't know too much about that. You know, I am pretty sure that there are a lot of things that we don't know, you know, inside the team or inside, you know, everything.

But if they let Jannik to keep playing, is for something, they said he's innocent. So that's all I know and that's all I can talk about.

Q. Just going back to the injury in practice, when it first happened, were you nervous, were you scared that maybe you wouldn't be able to play the US Open? What was the initial reaction when you hurt yourself today?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, I mean, I wasn't worried at all for my US Open participation. Obviously I was angry because I don't want to stop the practice, just to respect Cerundolo, as well.

I don't want to stop any practice. I want to practice, I want to get better, I want to get ready for the tournament.

But honestly with the ankle, I wasn't worried about that. So I'm sure that, you know, tomorrow or in two days I'm going to be my at 100%, for sure. It's about time.