Carlos Alcaraz is preparing to face his first match after his defeat in the Olympic final to Novak Djokovic.
After a superb run to the final in Cincinnati last year, Carlos Alcaraz lost two agonising tie-breaks to Novak Djokovic in the final.
A tremendous summer this year was also slightly dampened by two incredibly tight tie-breaks, with Alcaraz eventually settling for an Olympic silver.
Having picked up his first French Open title in June, before successfully defending his Wimbledon one a month later, Alcaraz became the youngest player to win a grand slam on all three surfaces.
With his first major success coming at the US Open in 2022, Alcaraz will be keen to get a speedy start on the North American hard courts.
A stacked field at the Cincinnati Open sees Jannik Sinner seeded first, despite the Italian failing to defend his title in Montreal after defeat to Andrey Rublev.
Carlos Alcaraz outlines his priority for the rest of the tennis season
With the race for the number one spot as alive as it gets, Alcaraz is dead-set on finishing 2024 right at the very top.
“Obviously being number one is a goal every time that I am [behind] and the race is an important ranking for me. At the end of the year, if you end the race number one, in the rankings [it is] quite similar, so you’re going to end the number one.” Alcaraz told the ATP.
“So I’m really focused on that. I’m focused on going to every tournament, thinking about playing great tennis, doing a good result just to get better in the race, and this year, ending the year as number one is one of my main goals right now. So I’m looking forward to doing it and let’s see.
“I’m fighting for being number one in the race, that’s something that I really want to do as soon as possible, if I could do it in the future,” Alcaraz said.
“This one is a really important tournament, really good tournament for me. So I’m going to try to play good tennis, try to play same level as I was playing, and let’s see.”
The Spaniard has a ‘bye’ in the first round and so will kick off his hard court season against either Gael Monfils, or Alexei Popyrin, who is enjoying his run to the semi-finals in Montreal.
Is Carlos Alcaraz the frontrunner for the US Open?
As defending champion Djokovic has decided not to play any warm-up events before the US Open, it is difficult to get a read on how his game might look compared to the Parisian clay.
Despite his recovery from his knee injury, with likely a lot of pressure exerted on it during his Olympic final match, his former coach Goran Ivanisevic has tipped Djokovic for US Open glory once again.
With their astonishingly high quality Olympic final, mere weeks after their somewhat lop-sided Wimbledon one, a US Open shootout could be the ultimate instalment to this saga of epic final showdowns.
Alcaraz’s form in the past two months has been nothing short of remarkable with the 21-year-old having lost just two of his last 22 matches, dating all the way back to the start of Roland Garros in May.
While he is yet to open his account on the hard courts, there remains little doubt that Alcaraz will take no time in finding his top level, with the Spaniard already tipped for the final in Cincinnati.
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