By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday October 3, 2023
Despite a difficult loss at the hands of his rival Jannik Sinner on Tuesday night in Beijing, Carlos Alcaraz remains confident in his game.
“I’m coming to Shanghai with a lot of confidence, even if I lost today,” he told reporters after falling 7-6(4), 6-1 to Sinner on Tuesday. “It doesn’t matter for me, I just focus on being better, a better player, and focus on doing the things that I didn’t today, and try to win the tournament. That’s my goal in Shanghai.”
Alcaraz dropped to 3-4 lifetime against Sinner, and 1-2 in 2023, and the Spaniard admitted that were some regrets after he fell to 61-8 on the season.
“I had chances to have the second break in the first set,” he recalled. “Didn’t take it. Some break points after. Didn’t take it – against players like Jannik, if you don’t take the chances, it’s more difficult to win or to be up in the score. Is something that I have to learn about.”
Too strong from @janniksin 👏
Sinner moves ahead in his head to head vs Alcaraz and moves through to the Beijing final!#ChinaOpen pic.twitter.com/Zd4MXvFX5a
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 3, 2023
Alcaraz: I Had to Change My Game
The Spaniard said that he felt he should have made some adjustments against Sinner, but he was irritated in the second set and never made the necessary adjustments.
“Obviously he played really good tennis, as well,” Alcaraz said. “I had to change a little bit my game. I couldn’t do that. I tried to play deeper. I couldn’t. I tried to play more tactically. I didn’t do well in that part. That’s something that I have to learn about if I want to beat Jannik.”
The 20-year-old World No.2 said he needs to be tougher mentally as well.
“This is something that in the second set I was out of my mind,” he said. “I [was] complaining a lot, something that is really difficult to play your best if you’re complaining or you are mad at yourself.”
Asked to elaborate on what makes Sinner such a tough opponent, Alcaraz said:
“Jannik is really a complete player. He almost [does] everything well. He pushes you to the limit in every shot. You have to hit the ball perfectly if you want to be alive in the point. Even if you think you hit the ball really, really well, he can return it better than yours. It’s something that he does very, very well.”
Alcaraz also cited the Italian’s return as well as his mobility before concluding: “You have to find the way to beat him or to be…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Blog RSS…