Spanish tennis great disagrees with Carlos Alcaraz after shock US Open loss: ‘He pushed it to the limit’
Alex Corretja does not agree with Carlos Alcaraz’s claim about having “taken steps backwards mentally” following his fellow Spaniard’s early exit at the 2024 US Open.
The two-time French Open finalist feels Alcaraz’s struggles at the US Open were a result of the fact he pushed his body “to the limit” with his success this summer.
Alcaraz suffered a shock straight-set defeat to world No 74 Botic van de Zandschulp in the second round of the US Open last week.
“Right now, I feel like I’ve taken steps backwards mentally and I don’t understand why,” the four-time major champion admitted in his press conference after his loss in New York.
“I’ve had a spectacular summer at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. I left those tournaments saying that I’d taken a step forward mentally.
“I’d realised that to win big things, to win Grand Slam titles, you have to be mentally strong. Now I’ve reached this swing and I’ve taken steps backwards, like I’m not doing well mentally, I’m not strong.
“I don’t know how to control myself when faced with problems and I don’t know how to handle it. I have to see exactly what happened, or what’s going on with me.”
The defeat, which was Alcaraz’s earliest at a Grand Slam in over three years, ended his hopes of winning a third consecutive major after his triumphs at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
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Speaking on the El Larguero radio show, Corretja highlighted the energy Alcaraz invested in the months leading up to the US Open.
“With all the affection and love I have for Carlos, I do not agree with him… He hasn’t taken any steps back, he has taken a thousand steps forward in the season. This is just a step on the road,” said the Spaniard.
“It’s true that after the summer that Alcaraz was having, you come to New York with the hope that maybe you’ll repeat it and do very well.
“But I honestly think it’s very normal that at some point Carlos felt that he had no energy left. I think that the effort he has made, both physically and especially emotionally, in recent months has been enormous.
“What he had to do to get in shape for Roland Garros was, I think, gigantic because he won the tournament suffering a lot.
“He went to grass, won Wimbledon. A few days go by, he goes to the Olympic Games and reaches the final. Not only does he lose the final in a very emotional way, but he also plays doubles with [Rafael] Nadal.
“What does this mean? That everything that Alcaraz has been through in recent months has been so intense, so difficult to manage, that I think he has had little time to recover.
“Each case is different and in his case in particular, I would say that what he has won is what has led him to also push himself to the maximum.
“So beyond losing against the 70-something in the world, I think that his mental freshness was clearly lacking. More than a mental breakdown, it’s more that the body has a limit and Alcaraz has pushed it to the limit.
“If Alcaraz had made, for example, the quarter-finals at Roland Garros and the semi-finals at Wimbledon, maybe he’d already made it to the final at the Olympic Games, you’d say ‘well, maybe he’s not that tired’.
“But if you reach the finals in all the tournaments, you win most of them and on top of that, with the emotional burden that comes with being 21 years old, with physical difficulties, he recovers and makes it to the United States…”
The former world No 2 continued: “He barely had three or four days off, then he had to go and change surfaces again and in my opinion, that has taken its toll on him.
“He hasn’t had the necessary time to relax a little, get back to training, get back into the necessary rhythm and of course, the calendar, the Olympic years, well, really it’s almost always very tight.
“If you add to that the fact that you don’t stop winning matches, well, it’s a blessed problem, but one that I think could happen at some point.
“Honestly, I think that you could see that when it came to deciding when to play in one way or another, Alcaraz had a hard time keeping his ideas straight, and that can be attributed to everything I’ve explained to you, that he’s been very intense in recent weeks.”
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