Carlos Alcaraz adds and continues. The 18-year-old Spanish tennis player has just won his first ATP 500 title with his victory in Rio de Janeiro against Diego Schwartzmann . A triumph that has allowed him to climb up to nine positions in the ATP ranking to be among the best 20 tennis players in the world for the first time. A versatile player on the court who aspires to be number one in the world. “The truth is that I think big,” acknowledged the pupil of Juan Carlos Ferrero .
Carlos Alcaraz opens this Monday a new position in the ATP ranking, the highest in his professional career. Thanks to his victory in the final of the Río Open 2022 against Diego Schwartzmann and to the one he achieved after getting rid of great clay specialists such as Jaume Munar, Fede Delbonis, Matteo Berrettini or Fabio Fognini, the Spanish tennis player born in El Palmar (Murcia ) has climbed nine positions in the ranking to reach the top 20 for the first time.
The Río Open will always be a very special tournament for Carlos Alcaraz as it was the first in which he achieved his first professional victory two years ago, when he was just 16 years old. On that occasion he received an invitation to the tournament for his status as a promising tennis player, when he was still 400 steps from the great heights of the ATP. This year he returned to the top 30 and leaves Rio with a title under his arms and a much higher ranking: new number 20 in the ATP.
Alcaraz is the youngest player among the top 100 in the ranking, where only another contemporary of the Murcian is placed, Holger Rune, a month older and who holds the 88th position in the ranking. In addition, Juan Carlos Ferrero’s pupil made history with his victory in Rio by being the youngest tennis player since 2009 to become champion in a 500 category tournament.
“I want to be number one”
Carlos Alcaraz continues to show that he is a great competitor and that everything that has been said about him is true. A very complete tennis player, with great mental strength and ambition, he is achieving all the goals he sets for himself. At his young age he can already boast of having won several rounds in all the Grand Slams he has played, of having gotten rid of tennis players ranked among the top ten on several occasions and of already having several titles in his showcases: Umag, Rio, in addition of having been champion of the Next Gen Finals 2021 in Milan.
“My ambitions are to be number one in the world, to win many Grand Slams and to win an Olympic medal . The truth is that I think big, “Alcaraz acknowledged at the press conference after his victory in Rio de Janeiro. “There are high expectations from some people who think I can be the best in the world. But both my team and I know how difficult it is to be. So far I think I’m on the right track and if I don’t deviate, I’ll have a chance to catch up,” he reflected.
“My goal is not to go down from that level. I will try little by little to continue climbing. Now I have several tournaments that I couldn’t play last year and they are opportunities to continue climbing”, said Alcaraz, who, this year, thanks to his better ranking, is guaranteed his presence in tournaments where he couldn’t be last year.
After winning in Rio, the Murcian declared himself low for the Acapulco tournament -on the fast track-, due to “elbow discomfort”. It should be remembered that Alcaraz is part of the Spanish team that will fight against Romania on March 4 and 5 in Marbella to get into the 2022 Davis Cup finals.
