Roland Garros 2022 – Carlos Alcaraz after his elimination: “I feel I have the level to win a major tournament”

If the German promised mountains and wonders for a new darling on the track in the future, he was on schedule when the quarter-finals began. “What I missed was to start my game betterhe admitted at a press conference. In the third and fourth I started to play better but it wasn’t enough. I started too lateHis shot in the third set and his fury in the fourth almost pushed the German into the fifth. But waiting until his back against the wall for rebellion remains a risky strategy.

Different from the US Open, the same purpose

This Tuesday, we saw the difference between the amazing youngster who is still spotting these spikes and the usual in the second week of meetings. “He has already played a Grand Slam final, which is a Grand Slam semi-final. I don’t have enough suede yetEvidence that, according to his reading of the match, everything was played on the basis of experience, which he fatally lacked when he was 19 years old.

“I already found out the truth about playing the Grand Slam quarter-finalsHe estimated that when assessing his Parisian fortnight, he stopped earlier than some had thought. I could have spotted him at the US Open but I got hurt. Here it was completely different, I played, I had chances to fight and chances to qualify for the semi-finals. But at this level, you play against the best players in the world, who have already experienced these sensations. The most important thing, I think, is to live these moments, in this kind of Grand Slam tour“.

No pressure on ‘favorite’ mode

Was he able to experience some kind of pressure at the sight of expectations that bombarded him as the favorite in this quarter-final and a candidate for ultimate victory? “I didn’t think I was the favourite during this matchhe swept away before returning to this heavy freak pose. It didn’t bother me feeling like the favourite, I didn’t think so. Zverev was better today than me“There is still pride in him, because he had the impression that he gave everything, even in hindsight.”I leave the field with my head held high“, he added.

But if the Alcaraz phenomenon is so attractive during these two weeks, and long before that on the ring, it is because he is firmly convinced that he has a golden destiny. This defeat did not change this state of mind to listen to him. “I have the skills and the level to be able to win this match, It is to explain. I wouldn’t say the opposite: I still feel like I can win one of the four Grand Slams, I feel like I own the level. But the matches are long and there are details that escaped me today. I have to learn and work on those little details that I need to improveSo, go to the next test. To validate it, this time?