"Every player is tired mentally, I'm tired mentally" - Carlos Alcaraz laments 'demanding' schedule after Casper Ruud loss to start ATP Finals campaign
Carlos Alcaraz suffered a surprising loss in his opening contest at the 2024 ATP Finals against Casper Ruud on November 11. The Spaniard looked jaded during the contest and expressed frustration with the lengthy ATP schedule after the loss.
Alcaraz was not at the top of his game while facing Ruud in his ATP Finals opener, and his chances weren't helped by the Norwegian's clean hitting of shots on both the wings. Ruud broke Alcaraz five times throughout the match and saved all four breakpoints on his serve to register his 50th tour-level win this year, 6-1, 7-5, in 86 minutes.
While the Spaniard hit more winners than his Norwegian rival (25 vs.15), he also committed way more unforced errors (34 vs. 16). While analyzing his performance in the post-match press conference, the four-time Grand Slam champion revealed that he felt mentally and physically fatigued due to a long season, which did not offer enough time to recover between tournaments.
"I dare to say that every player is tired mentally. If someone says that he is fresh, he is lying (smiling). Some players deal with it better than others. I'm tired. I'm tired mentally. Obviously a lot of matches, really tight schedule, really demanding year with not too many days off, not too many period of you could rest, you could practice at home. It's kind of you finish one week or you finish a swing, you only have two or three days off and then you have to go to other tournaments to other part of the world," Carlos Alcaraz told reporters.
Alcaraz added a lack of proper days off on the ATP schedule has taken a toll on his body. Now that the season is ending with such a big tournament, he doesn't have enough energy.
"Since the beginning of the year you're accumulating hours, days. You come into this part of year tired.As I said many, many times, I think this year I'm much better than last year, but I have to find the way to performance and deliver a good tennis being tired mentally," he continued.
This isn't the first time Carlos Alcaraz has spoken out against the tightness of the ATP schedule. Ahead of the Shanghai Masters in early October, the 21-year-old was not happy to have little to no recovery time after winning the China Open title in Beijing a day earlier.
"Well, I said so many times, the tennis schedule is so tight, but we have to get used to it, or I guess we have to. Yeah, yesterday we finished 8.30 pm, 9 pm, three-hours match, and then I had no time to do anything else. I just went to the club before the final with all the bags, because I knew that we had to run after the finals to take the flight to come here," Carlos Alcaraz said at the time.
Carlos Alcaraz to face Alexander Zverev and Andrey Rublev in remaining ATP Finals matches
Carlos Alcaraz will need to muster the necessary energy and motivation as his season is not over yet. The third-seeded Spaniard still has to play two more contests in Turin, facing seventh-seed Andrey Rublev in his second group-stage match before a mouth-watering clash against second-seed Alexander Zverev.
Alcaraz qualified for the 2024 ATP Finals after a stellar season in which he completed the Channel Slam (winning the French Open and Wimbledon) and picked up trophies at the Indian Wells Masters and ATP 500 China Open in Beijing. However, he comes to Turin after suffering rather shocking losses to Tomas Machac in Shanghai and Ugo Humbert in Paris.
The former World No. 1's season will extend beyond the 2024 ATP Finals as he has been announced in the Spanish lineup for the 2024 Davis Cup Finals, which will played from November 19 to 24 in Malaga. Alcaraz will joined by Rafael Nadal, who will hang up his racket after the tournament.