Alcaraz's big focus: Year-end No. 1

Carlos Alcaraz has enjoyed a hot stretch of form, winning Roland Garros and Wimbledon, and capturing the singles silver medal at the Paris Olympics. Now the Spaniard has his sights set on one thing: ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF honours.

The 21-year-old enters the Cincinnati Open just 450 points behind first-placed Sinner in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, which serves as a barometer for year-end No. 1.

“Obviously being No. 1 is a goal every time that I am [behind] and the race is an important ranking for me. At the end of the year, if you end the race No. 1, in the rankings [it is] quite similar, so you're going to end the No. 1,” Alcaraz said. “So I'm really focused on that. I'm focused on going to every tournament, thinking about playing great tennis, doing a good result just to get better in the race, and this year, ending the year as No. 1 is one of my main goals right now. So I'm looking forward to doing it and let's see.”

For nearly the entire first half of the season, it seemed Sinner was in prime position to become the first Italian year-end No. 1 in history. But after earning back-to-back major titles, Alcaraz is hot on the 22-year-old’s heels.

“I’m fighting for being No. 1 in the race, that's something that I really want to to do as soon as possible, if I could do it in the future,” Alcaraz said. “This one is a really important tournament, really good tournament for me. So I'm going to try to play good tennis, try to play same level as I was playing, and let's see.”

Alcaraz has won 20 of his past 22 matches dating back to the start of Roland Garros. During that stretch, he has emerged victorious against nine of the 10 Top 20 players he has faced.

“I’ve been playing great tennis, but probably most of the matches I won, I won them without playing great tennis, or I felt like I didn't play really great tennis,” Alcaraz said. “So the way that I approach every match, I stay there strong mentally in some situations, I'm really, really happy about that.

“[I’m happy] about the way that I [handled] some situations, that I stayed there, even knowing that I didn't play, or I wasn't playing great tennis. But [I played] with a positive attitude, with the right face always and trying to find solutions in some moments that I could do it. I'm really happy about it.”

After losing a heartbreaking gold-medal match to Novak Djokovic in Paris, Alcaraz went on holiday with one of his brothers and two close friends. “I just needed a few days without thinking about tennis,” he said.

The Spaniard touched a racquet for the first time since the Olympics on Sunday when he practised in Cincinnati. The second seed will play Gael Monfils or Alexei Popyrin in his opening match.

“I’m excited to to play here again. I'm really happy to be back. Obviously great memories from last year, reaching the final, losing a really tight and epic match,” Alcaraz said. “This is a tournament that I love playing and yeah, excited to start the tournament.”