Carlos Alcaraz has officially ended his 2024 season, after playing two exhibitions in the United States last week. The former world No. 1 faced Ben Shelton at Madison Square Garden in New York and Frances Tiafoe in Charlotte, giving fans plenty of spectacular shots and enjoying the atmosphere to the fullest. This pre-season is very important for the young Spanish champion, who has very ambitious goals for 2025.
The current world number 3 has achieved brilliant results in 2024, having won two Grand Slam titles and a Masters 1000, but the distance to his great rival Jannik Sinner in the ATP rankings amounts to almost 5000 points
Carlitos will have to be much more consistent next year if he wants to return to world No. 1 and he himself admitted that he has to work on some aspects together with his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero (who will be joined by Samuel Lopez in 2025).
The 21-year-old from Murcia will start the new season directly at the Australian Open, which will take place at Melbourne Park from 12 to 26 January. The 4-time Grand Slam champion has never expressed his best tennis in this tournament so far, which is why he will change something in his preparation to get to top form at the first Major of the season.
Alcaraz will be the number 3 seed in Australia, having been overtaken by Sascha Zverev in the last tournaments of 2024.
Carlitos’ pre-season has begun
The Spanish player’s pre-season began on December 9th. The former world number 1 will spend a few days in Murcia, before going to Juan Carlos Ferrero’s Academy in Villena.
According to the latest rumors, the 4-time Grand Slam champion will practice with world number 15 Jack Draper – who has just experienced the best season of his career – and with Flavio Cobolli, current world number 32.
Alcaraz and Cobolli strengthened their bond during the last edition of the Laver Cup in Berlin, in which the Italian ace was invited as a reserve. On that occasion, Cobolli had defined Carlitos as the best player in the world despite Sinner being number 1
In a recent interview, the current World No.3 commented on his 2024 season: “I’m not used to dealing with so many injuries, and this year was a complicated time for me when I faced the clay season, but I ended it up good.
But at the same time, I look back and I think I did have a pretty good season. I’m really proud of what I did to overcome the problems that I had and the doubts that I had.
In general, I’m just happy with everything that I’ve learned this season and hopefully in 2025 I can try to copy or do even better.”
New goals
The young Spaniard showed incredible tennis between the spring and summer of 2024, but he was not as brilliant in the rest of the season also due to some injuries. The former world No. 1 won Roland Garros and Wimbledon – perhaps the two most prestigious Grand Slam tournaments – but was eliminated in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and in the second round at the US Open.
In addition, the 21-year-old from Murcia has only achieved 75% victories in Masters 1000 tournaments although he lifted the trophy in Indian Wells for the second year in a row.
Alcaraz is still very young and has time to improve his weaknesses, but Sinner’s rise in the last twelve months imposes a certain haste on him. The Italian champion showed almost unreal consistency in 2024, winning eight titles and suffering only six losses in the whole year (three of them against Carlitos).
During an interview with ‘Tennis365’, ATP legend Pat Cash opened up on Alcaraz’s future: “I hope Carlos continues to enjoy his tennis and doesn’t feel burdened by it all.
He could look at it and think ‘I’ve done just about everything and I’m getting sick of this’, but you can see he loves it at the moment and it’s amazing that he is such a complete player at this age.
Alcaraz has got everything. I’ve never seen a young player who has developed all his game at such a young age. There are normally some areas that need improving at that age. Not since Boris Becker came through and won Wimbledon have I seen a player as complete as Alcaraz at such a young age.
Alcaraz is an incredibly complete player. He’s lightening fast, he can play on any surface and at the moment, you would put him in there with Sinner as a favorite for every tournament he enters.
