‘Nervous’ Carlos Alcaraz gives injury update after shaky start to Indian Wells title defence
Carlos Alcaraz admits he was quite nervous ahead of his Indian Wells Open return as he wasn’t sure how his ankle would hold up following his recent injury.
Just over two weeks after he rolled his ankle during the opening exchanges of his match at the Rio Open, Alcaraz returned to competitive action at the ATP Masters 1000 event in California.
The Spaniard’s title defence in the desert got off to a rocky beginning as he lost the opening set against world No 40 Matteo Arnaldi before getting his act together to run away with a 6-7 (5-7), 6-0, 6-1.
In the end, it was a good workout for the world No 2, but he admits was quite anxious at the beginning of the match and that contributed to his poor start.
“I was probably nervous because it was the first match. Obviously, this tournament is really special for me. I want to do well,” the reigning Wimbledon champion said.
“This was the first match playing at high intensity and I didn’t know how my ankle was going to respond. A lot of things came to my mind.
“I couldn’t be 100 per cent focused in the match and, yes, that made me a bit nervous. But I have to deal with that. My game is playing aggressive all the time, trying to stay calm and waiting for my chances.
“When you get nervous, you don’t think about that. You don’t hit the ball as well as you want to. You don’t move as well as you want to. I think that’s the big difference.”
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Alcaraz has played only eight completed matches so far this year while his match at the Rio Open lasted only two games.
The ankle injury was not too serious in the end as he also came through unscathed from his exhibition match against Rafael Nadal in Las Vegas on March 3.
But the two-time Grand Slam winner admits he is starting to feel “really good”.
“I come here without too many matches. I think last year I came here with more matches and more rhythm,” he said.
“Now, I’m recovering from an ankle injury. I was thinking about it all the time and I couldn’t practice as much as I wanted to at high intensity. But now I’m getting better and feeling really good, but I think I have to take the rhythm one step at a time. I think that’s the big difference between last year and this year.”
Up next is 15th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime and Alcaraz will likely need to have another extended run at the Indian Wells Open if he is to stay ahead of Jannik Sinner in the ATP Rankings.
Sinner currently sits at No 2 in the Live Rankings – 105 points ahead of his rival – as Alcaraz dropped 1,000 points as the defending champion while the Italian reached the semi-final.
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