Carlos Alcaraz is adamant that he can one day win a Grand Slam despite being knocked out of the French Open at the quarter-final stage.
Nonetheless, Alcaraz feels that his performances this year have demonstrated that he has the game to match the best players in the world, and that at 19, his time will come.
He said: “I have to take the lesson. I have to improve in the next Grand Slams or next matches. But I would say I’m not far away to reach a semi-final or to be able to win a Grand Slam.
“I would say I have the level, I have the confidence to win a Grand Slam or pass through to the semi-final next time.
“I leave the court and the tournament with my head very high. I fought until the last ball. I fought until the last second of the match, and I’m proud of it.
“It was a tough match and a close match I think. I could say I didn’t start well, and at this level, the quarter-final of a Grand Slam, you are playing against the best players in the world, so you have to start the match better than I did.
“I’m just going to try and take the positive things from the match, and of course the bad things that I did, to improve in the next matches or next tournaments or next Grand Slams.
“I was close to a good match, close to a fifth set, and in the fifth set anything could’ve happened.”
Alcaraz has shone most this year in the three-set format, winning titles in Rio, Miami, Barcelona and Madrid, as the teenager became the talk of the tennis world.
As he admitted however, he has some way yet to figure out the five-set format that will be key to his hopes of winning a major, but nonetheless revelled in the experience of just his sixth main-draw appearance at a Slam.
He said: “The difference between the other tournaments and a Grand Slam [is that] you have time to come back. But at the same time it’s tougher, because it’s tough to keep the focus, keep the level during three, four, five hours in a Grand Slam.
“[My coach] Juan-Carlos [Ferrero] told me that the things that I have to improve in the next tournaments, in the next matches, next Grand Slams. A Grand Slam, for a final, you have to play against the best players in the world, and you have to keep the focus or the level during four or five hours. I have to improve the level that I played.
“I enjoyed [the tournament] a lot, even [though] I lost. Playing in front of such a great crowd, playing in these kind of tournaments, this kind of court, is amazing for me.
“I train for these moments. I fight with the best players in the world, fight for [the] final of a Grand Slam, so it’s amazing. That’s why I’m training, that’s why I’m playing tennis, to keep dreaming, to have chances to be in the best tournaments in the world.”
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Source: Euro Sports