Alcaraz: 'I want to leave my mark on Roland Garros'

The first thing Carlos Alcaraz did when leaving the court after more than four hours of tennis was spend 20 minutes on an exercise bike to start his recovery. The second, of course, was to look at his telephone and find mountains of messages congratulating him on his win against Jannik Sinner to progress to his first final at Roland Garros, and his third in a Grand Slam tournament.

When he stopped pedalling, the No. 3 player in the PIF ATP Rankings spent some time switching between cold and hot baths before finally eating something to continue to reset his body after his demanding encounter with the Italian, whom he now leads 5-4 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

Alcaraz then appeared in the press conference room to answer journalists’ questions for almost half an hour, before doing TV interviews and heading to his hotel to rest and start thinking about the last step ahead of him.

“It was a very tough match, but I’m very happy to have come through it and to have learned from the situations I’ve faced so far,” the 21-year-old said. “They’re moments in which I didn’t do well mentally and they took their toll... Today, I changed that. I was positive all the time, I was strong mentally and I didn’t get down at any point. To me, I’m proud to know that I’m not making the same mistakes twice.”

Alcaraz did not directly say so, but his words hinted at a new direction; the semi-final match he lost to Novak Djokovic in 2023, where he was caught off guard by cramp after winning the second set as a result of the stress of the encounter. It is obvious that the Spaniard made a conscious effort to overcome a similar situation one year on from the episode against the Serbian, on the same court and at the same tournament.

“It wasn’t easy playing this match against Jannik,” Alcaraz admitted. “He demands a very high level mentally, physically and in terms of tennis throughout the entire match. Maintaining those three things for four hours is not at all easy. Even less so on clay.

“[There is] a lot of heat, long rallies, shots you have to put a lot of energy into... but in the end you have to deal with those situations and those kinds of moments. It's what the match required; a change of tactics, of positions. [It was] back and forth, [you have to] work with the tiredness and the cramps of both players or the mental level. I’m very happy to be in the final.”

Alcaraz explained that he did not believe this was “an expected final” for him.

“Sunday will be a really tough match,” Alcaraz said. “I’ll have to fight for it and play very well if I want to win. Today was a great victory, but it wasn’t an expected final for me.”

That final, in any case, will bring back memories for the Spaniard of a tournament that has been very special to him since he was a boy.

“Before I was a professional, I’d only come to Roland Garros once,” Alcaraz recalled. “I experienced this tournament when I was 11 or 12. I came to play an Under-11 or Under-12 tournament that they had on a court by the Eiffel Tower, and it was an amazing moment because I met so many players. I was there with Holger and a lot of other players.

“I would leave school and run home to plug the TV in and watch Roland Garros matches. It’s a very special tournament for me that I’ve been watching since I was little. And it’s a tournament where Spanish players have been very successful. We’re used to Rafa [Nadal], but there were other Spaniards before him that did big things. So I want to leave my mark, add my name to that list.”