Carlos Alcaraz’s coach has revealed that the Spaniard intends to play a full clay-court season and will not be distracted by the No 1 ranking ‘drama’.
The world No 2 will arrive at the clay-court season on the back of a shock to Sebastian Korda in the third round of the Miami Open.
Alcaraz is next scheduled to compete at the Monte-Carlo Masters, which takes place from April 5 – 12.
At last year’s edition, he defeated Lorenzo Musetti 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 in the final to win his maiden title in Monaco.
Just a few days later, he was in action at the Barcelona Open as the two-time defending champion – falling to Holger Rune 7-6(6), 6-1 in the final.
The heavy schedule contributed towards an abductor injury during the showpiece match, forcing him to withdraw from the Madrid Masters.
After a period of rest and recovery, he returned to win titles at the Italian Open and the French Open.
This year, Samuel Lopez – Alcaraz’s main coach – has made clear that the world No 1 intends to play all five tournaments, if he remains healthy.
“Let’s see, in principle we’re going with the idea of playing everything, of playing the whole swing, you know,” revealed Lopez during an interview with Eurosport ES.
“Monte Carlo – if things had gone well, if things had gone better in Miami – we would probably have skipped it.
“But in this case, well, Monte Carlo is going to be more of a preparation tournament.
“The thing is, you already know that sometimes those preparation tournaments… you get up to speed very quickly. But for us, Monte Carlo is more like last year.
“What happens is that last year things worked out and in the end it was won, but in the end going to the first clay tournament and winning it, well, for almost everyone it’s the first clay tournament, so almost everyone is in the same conditions.
“The idea is to try to manage it and arrive as well as possible at Roland Garros, at 100%. We’ll see what happens along the way.”
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Whilst Alcaraz enjoyed a healthy lead at the top of the rankings after his victory at the Rotterdam Open, his lead has been severely slimmed down to 1190 by Sinner’s victories at the Indian Wells Masters and the Miami Open.
However, the clay-court swing presents a far tougher points defence for Alcaraz, who has 4,330 points to protect compared to Sinner’s 1,950.
The Italian would be able to leapfrog his rival on April 13 if he is victorious at the Monte-Carlo Masters – regardless of Alcaraz’s Monaco performance.
2025 provided for a photo finish in the race for the year-end No 1 status, with just 550 points between the pair after the conclusion of the Nitto ATP Finals.
Despite the exciting storyline, Lopez insists that his pupil will not be distracted by the ‘drama’, instead focusing on his self-improvement.
“Yes, it’s something we have to talk about again,” admitted the coach.
“It’s something that is talked about, but yes. I think he understands that it can happen, and that it’s not a drama.
“It’s already happened to him before. In the end, being No 1, No 4, what matters is that you see that you’re evolving, that you’re ready for the big moments and able to keep adding titles.
“No. 1 is a consequence of consistency over the whole year. This is a long-distance race. We’ll see, at different moments one defends points, then another does.
“In the end, whoever finishes as No 1 will deserve it. There’s no need to give it more importance than it has.”
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