Despite retaining his World no. 1 position in the ATP rankings, Carlos Alcaraz recently accepted that Novak Djokovic is the main favourite for Wimbledon. The Serb will be aiming to match Roger Federer’s tally of record eight Wimbledon titles at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
Former player and three-time Wimbledon champion John McEnroe recently praised Alcaraz and pointed out it was just a matter of time before Alcaraz would figure out how to play in grass. Speaking to The Daily Mail, he said, “This guy is going to figure it out. It’s just a matter of when to me, not if.”
In 2016, McEnroe worked with Milos Raonic during the grass season. That year, Raonic reached the finals at Queen’s and Wimbledon, losing to Andy Murray in both matches.
After his Queen’s victory, the Spaniard said, “It felt great to lift this trophy and to win my first tournament on grass. It is an amazing run for me this week. I played at an amazing level at the end of the week but seeing my name on a trophy, it means a lot, so I am going to keep that memory for the rest of my life, for sure.”
Alcaraz also explained that he is ‘one of the favourites to win Wimbledon’ but doesn’t have any expectations. “No expectations. If I did not have expectations (here) and I won it. Honestly, I have a lot of confidence now coming into Wimbledon. I ended up the week playing at a high level, so right now I feel one of the favourites to win Wimbledon”, he said.
He also labelled Djokovic as the main favourite. “Well, I am coming now (to play) Wimbledon with a lot of confidence, that’s obvious, but I saw a statistic that Novak has won more matches at Wimbledon than any top-20 player. What can I say about that? Novak is the main favourite to win Wimbledon, that’s obvious, but I will try to play at this level to have chances to beat him or make the final at Wimbledon,” he said.
Alcaraz also made a last-minute change to his Wimbledon preparations, skipping a pre-tournament event and cited injury concern as the reason reportedly. He was set to play one last event, the Hurlingham Classic, where he was slated to face Dominic Thiem on Friday. He had also earlier withdrawn from his first match at the event, where he was scheduled to face Holger Rune on July 29. During his training sessions at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, he was also seen doing physiotherapy and stretching sessions on his right thigh, where he injured himself during the Club Championship final, where he defeated Alex de Minaur.
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