Carlos Alcaraz: 'After this game I have to say that...'

• Tennis News
• Carlos Alcaraz

Carlos Alcaraz, Pablo Carreño, Roberto Bautista and Marcel Granollers will form the MAPFRE Spanish Tennis Team that will play Final 8 of the Davis Cup Finals by Rakuten 2022 in Malaga, from November 22 to 27. A fifth player will complete the list later.

Captain Sergi Bruguera confirmed the call this Monday in a meeting with the press held at the headquarters of the Royal Spanish Tennis Federation (RFET) in Barcelona: "I will leave the fifth player, for the time being, free because there is still a month left and I would like to assess the performance of all possible players between now and the end of the year”.

Pablo Carreño is the novelty with respect to the team that achieved classification in the group stage played in Valencia last September. The Asturian fell from the list at the last minute due to physical problems and was replaced by Albert Ramos.

Spain will go to Malaga as first classified in Group B and will have Croatia, second in Group A, which was played in Bologna, in the tie, already direct, in the quarterfinals. Croatia, rival in the quarterfinals "Croatia is one of the most difficult rivals that we could face", Brugera acknowledged.

“Cilic is a Grand Slam winner and his favorite surface is indoor. Coric is playing his best year, he comes from winning a Masters 1000 and is a very difficult number two. And on top of that they have the best doubles in the world in the last five years”.

The last precedent between Spain and Croatia was already with the new format in the 2019 group stage played in Madrid, with Spain winning 3-0 in the group stage, on the way to their sixth salad bowl. Croatia have played three of the last five Davis Cup finals.

After winning their first title in 2005, they repeated their success in 2018 in the last final played in the traditional home-away format.

Alcaraz suffered in Basel

Carlos Alcaraz suffered, but finally found a way to win the first round of the ATP 500 in Basel, which also means his first victory in an ATP tournament as number one.

The Murcian tennis player acknowledged in this interview that Draper had been a tough rival but that he always trusted to win the match. "Draper is a great player, who has been doing things very well, but what he had to do to win was not give up." In addition, the current number one in the ATP ranking admitted that it cost him a lot to start the match, especially due to the conditions of the track.

“The beginning of the match was hard for me, I made a lot of unforced errors trying to play very aggressive. This track for me is a bit slower than other tournaments but I have to learn to handle it and overcome the problems”.

Lastly, the reigning US Open champion was asked about the curiosity that occurs this week with the Spanish tennis players, and that is that they have all chosen to go to Basel, where there are a total of five in the main draw while in Vienna there are no there is none.

“I played last year in Vienna and this year I wanted to come to Basel to try new tournaments. I want to know new countries and different tournaments. After this game I have to say that I feel at home here", concluded Carlos Alcaraz.