Carlos Alcaraz looks on during his match
The good times have returned for Carlos Alcaraz as he found his mojo at the Monte Carlo Masters, but he has admitted that he recently considered stepping away from tennis.
Alcaraz returned to trophy-winning ways at the ATP 1000 event last week as he defeated Lorenzo Musetti in the final to lift his sixth Masters title and the singles trophy 18th of his career.
But just a few weeks earlier, Alcaraz was in crisis mode as he went through a blip following his Rotterdam Open title win.
He followed the Netherlands event with a quarter-final exit at the Qatar Open before his title defence at Indian Wells came to an end in the semi-final.
His defeat to Jack Draper had a big impact on him, and things went from bad to worse as he was beaten in the second round of the Miami Open by David Goffin.
In an extensive interview with Marca, he opened up about his struggles in recent months.
“It’s a combination of everything. In Indian Wells, I thought I was playing well and was pretty calm off the court. The loss to Draper hurt me a lot. Then I got to Miami, and that loss to Goffin was the final straw,” he said.
“We had to stop, sit down, and see what was happening. That moment has helped me a lot. It’s from bad times that we learn the most. I’ve learned, above all, to focus on what’s important.
“There are many things we give importance to that maybe aren’t. I said what’s truly important to me in tennis, and I’m going to continue along those lines.”
Asked if he hit rock bottom in Miami, he replied: “More or less, yes, you could say that. It was hard for me to get into the press; I didn’t even know what I was going to say. You could say so.”
The 21-year-old, who returned to No 2 in the ATP Rankings with his Monte Carlo title, considered a hiatus, but in the end he decided to learn from the experience.
And it proved to be a good move as he has found his rhythm again.
“In the end, in these situations, you think about a lot of things, and when something that hurt you is so recent, you never really put it into perspective,” the four-time Grand Slam winner said.
“A lot of thoughts come to mind: stop, stop for a week, skip a tournament, stop for several months, keep training, take a vacation, and then train for what’s next…
“A lot of thoughts came to mind, and one of the best things I did was take a few days off and give myself the opportunity to think clearly and put things into perspective, and then decide from there.”
