Carlos Alcaraz believes he has previously been missing the \u2018final step\u2019 to go deep at the Australian Open as he sets his sights on a historic triumph in Melbourne next month.<\/p>\n
Currently ranked as the world No 1, Alcaraz<\/a> has already cemented his place as one of the leading players of his era and one of the most accomplished players of all time, with six Grand Slam singles titles to his name.<\/p>\n Despite only turning 22 this past May, the Spaniard is already a two-time champion at the French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open, and is one step away from completing the Career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n However, the Australian Open<\/a> has been far and away the weakest of the four Grand Slam tournaments from Alcaraz\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n While the Spaniard has achieved two triumphs each at the other three Grand Slams \u2014 and a further Wimbledon runner-up finish in 2025 \u2014 he has never reached the semi-final in Melbourne.<\/p>\n Alcaraz\u2019s best showings at the Australian Open have been two quarter-finals runs, falling in the last eight to Alexander Zverev in 2024 and to Novak Djokovic at the same stage in 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n Having split the last eight Grand Slam men\u2019s singles titles with leading rival Jannik Sinner<\/a>, Alcaraz will be one of the heavy favourites to triumph inside the Rod Laver Arena next year.<\/p>\n However, he will have to break significant new ground inside Melbourne Park, and potentially dethrone Sinner \u2014 who has lifted the Australian Open title the past two years.<\/p>\n Alex de Minaur and Andrey Rublev reveal secrets from their off-season training programme<\/a><\/p>\n Andy Murray makes Roger Federer practice revelation as he shares Novak Djokovic insight<\/a><\/p>\n Speaking on the radio station COPE Murcia<\/em>, Alcaraz revealed that the tournament was his main \u201cobjective\u201d for the new season, and detailed why he had faced difficulties in the past.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cMy objective for 2026 is Australia, and the good and the bad thing is that it\u2019s the first tournament of the year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll try to be as ready and as well prepared as possible to show a good level and hopefully achieve the goal we want.<\/p>\n \u201cI think because it\u2019s the first tournament of the year. It\u2019s about getting into rhythm. It\u2019s not that it doesn\u2019t suit me \u2014 it\u2019s just that some players do better there, or when we\u2019ve competed, it\u2019s come down to small details.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I\u2019ve played very good tennis in Australia, I\u2019ve just missed that final step to go further. I believe and hope this year will be different.\u201d<\/p>\n The Australian Open main draw will begin on Sunday, January 18 next year, with the men\u2019s singles final set to take place on Sunday, February 1.<\/p>\n Alcaraz is not set to play an official warm-up tournament prior to the Australian Open, as has been his approach in recent years.<\/p>\n However, the Spaniard has recently competed at two exhibition matches in the United States, and is set to face Sinner in an exhibition match in South Korea the weekend before action gets underway in Melbourne.<\/p>\n Should Alcaraz lift the title in Melbourne, he would join Rod Laver, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic as the only men to complete the Career Grand Slam in the Open Era.<\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>: Exclusive \u2013 Who can break Carlos Alcaraz & Jannik Sinner\u2019s dominance? Marcos Baghdatis\u00a0predicts<\/a><\/p>\n The post Carlos Alcaraz explains past Australian Open struggles as he reveals 2026 \u2018hope\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carlos Alcaraz believes he has previously been missing the \u2018final step\u2019 to go deep at the Australian Open as he sets his sights on a historic triumph in Melbourne next month. Currently ranked as the world No 1, Alcaraz has already cemented his place as one of the leading players of his era and one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tennis News<\/h2>\n