Carlos Alcaraz now turns to preparing his US Open defense

in breath Carlitos Alcaraz He went from shooting little by little at all kinds of tournaments to carefully selecting the calendar. become a champion Wimbledon, his second major, decided to withdraw from two events in which he was a finalist last year that coincided on the calendar this season, both starting next Monday and on clay: the ATP 500 in Hamburg, Germany, and the ATP 250 in Umag , Croatia. The reason is clear, this weekend he will play the Hopman Cup, a tournament in the states, under little pressure, and he will only think about US Open. With six titles already this season, more than any other tennis player, and becoming the first tennis player to qualify for the Turin Masters Cup (November 12-19), Grand Slam they are now almost the sole focus of your planning.

The road to New York is set. From this Monday to Thursday, he will rest at his home, in El Palmar, before traveling to Nice for the land competition. There, he will team up with Rebeka Masarov — Paula Badosa’s replacement — who is defending Spain this weekend at the Hopman Cup, against Belgium on Friday and Croatia on Saturday. And then he will rest until the American tour, already on the hard track.

There are no smaller dates in the North American calendar than the Masters 1000 in Toronto (from August 7 to 13) and Cincinnati (from August 14 to 20) and the last Grand Slam year, US Open (from August 28 to September 10).

In the first two terms, he can fill his stable with points compared to 2022, when he lost in the first round in Canada and did not make it past the quarterfinals in Cincinnati. But in a similar way, Djokovic, his great rival, can finish the season as number one in the world. The Serb did not perform on the North American tour last year due to his refusal to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, which was still a requirement for entry into Canada and the United States at the time, and the veto has now been withdrawn by the authorities of both countries.