Carlos Alcaraz has made the commitment to play a full clay swing this season but could it cause him issues later down the line?
Having lost to Jannik Sinner in the Monte Carlo Masters final, Alcaraz made the commitment to play the full clay season, something he admitted was the goal last year.
“The main goal is to play the full clay season calendar. Let’s see how it’s gonna be. It was the goal last year, as well, and unfortunately, I couldn’t because I was injured,” Alcaraz said after losing to Sinner on Sunday.
“We are touching wood and praying that nothing’s going to happen to my body.”
The clay season though is a particularly gruelling part of the year. Days after the Monte Carlo tournament, Alcaraz will begin his defence of the Barcelona Open, a tournament that could add a further five matches to his schedule.
After Barcelona, Alcaraz will head south to Madrid for potentially another six matches and then Rome for the six matches of the Italian Open.
The clay season climaxes with Roland Garros, adding another seven matches to Alcaraz’s schedule.
If Alcaraz keeps his commitment and makes the final of every tournament, he will come away from the clay season with 29 matches under his belt. By comparison, Alcaraz played 23 clay matches last year and had injury problems later in the season.
The risk of injury is not lost on Alcaraz either but he believes he understands his body better now than he did 12 months ago.
“I feel my body is much better than last year. If I’m gonna skip one, I will skip one tournament. If my body stays healthy, I’m going to do whatever it takes to be healthy and take care of my body,” he said.”
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“If I do’t have any problems, I will play everything on clay. Let’s see how it’s gonna be in the next few weeks. I don’t know how it’s gonna be, the matches, if I’m gonna win matches, if I’m gonna lose in the first rounds, if the matches are going to be super demanding physically or not, so I don’t know how it’s gonna be, but what I can tell right now is I will hear my body much better this year than last year.”
This is also coming from a player who has complained about the ATP tour schedule being too tightly packed.
“I agree with Iga,” Alcaraz said after Iga Świątek voiced her concerns. “I think that the schedule is really tight. They have to do something with the schedule. I think there are too many mandatory tournaments, too many in a row.
“They put in some rules that we have to play Masters 1000s, 500 tournaments, whatever it is. But there are too many rules that we as tennis players are not allowed to have a choice if we have to play or not.
“To be honest, I have to consider in the future if I have to skip some mandatory tournaments just to maintain my physical condition and good shape. Obviously it’s more than the physical condition.
“I think mentally it’s really demanding as well, playing so many mandatory tournaments in a row or playing so many tournaments without having days to rest up mentally. I will consider skipping some mandatory tournaments to the benefit of myself mentally. I agree with Iga and I think a lot of players are going to do that.”
The most matches Alcaraz has ever played in a year was the 80 of last year but Alcaraz could be on 48 for this year by the end of the clay season alone.
The competition with Sinner for No 1 means neither player can spend too long away from the court but both could pay the price come later in the year.
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The post Does Carlos Alcaraz risk calendar burnout after clay swing commitment? appeared first on Tennis365.
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