Carlos Alcaraz will not have \u201cany doubts\u201d concerning his upcoming French Open title defence, according to former world No 2 Alex Corretja.<\/p>\n
Spanish star Alcaraz<\/a> defeated Alexander Zverev in a five-set final to win his first Roland Garros title in 2024, and is considered by many the favourite to once again triumph in Paris.<\/p>\n The world No 2 has lifted two Masters 1000 titles on clay this spring, winning in Monte Carlo and Rome, while also reaching the final of the Barcelona Open.<\/p>\n Alcaraz\u2019s Italian Open victory this past weekend came after he was forced to withdraw from the Madrid Open due to injury, and saw him beat world No 1 Jannik Sinner in the final.<\/p>\n The Spaniard beat Sinner in the last four of the French Open last year in five sets, having struggled with cramps against Novak Djokovic in the 2023 semi-final.<\/p>\n Speaking ahead of Roland Garros, TNT Sports<\/em> pundit Corretja<\/a> hailed Alcaraz\u2019s Rome success as an \u201cimportant\u201d win, and claimed his compatriot would be unfazed entering Paris as the reigning champion.<\/p>\n Carlos Moya responds to rumours that he has agreed to coach Jannik Sinner<\/a><\/p>\n Jannik Sinner has one crucial edge over Carlos Alcaraz, says tennis great<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s such an important win for Alcaraz, coming into Paris \u2013 winning in Rome,\u201d said Corretja, a two-time finalist in Paris.<\/p>\n \u201cMore than even Monte Carlo, because Monte Carlo was the start of the [clay] season, but then he had a little bit of a down after Barcelona, when he had his issue, then couldn\u2019t play in Madrid, so you have some doubts: \u2018How I am going to be ready to do well and succeed again?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThen all of a sudden you end up winning the tournament before Roland Garros. That should give him [Alcaraz] a boost of confidence, considering also that he won last year.<\/p>\n \u201cHe knows already that he can do well there [in Paris], he knows that he can win. He doesn\u2019t have doubts like a few years ago, where he had issues in the semi-final against Novak.\u201d<\/p>\n Main draw action at Roland Garros begins on Sunday, though it is possible that second seed Alcaraz will not begin his campaign until Tuesday.<\/p>\n Twelve months ago, Alcaraz dropped just one set on his way to the semi-final, where he then rallied from two sets to one down to beat Sinner in the last four and then Zverev in the final.<\/p>\n And Corretja has urged the reigning champion to be \u201csmart\u201d and avoid using up unnecessary energy in the early stages of the tournament.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cNow he enters the tournament, the only thing he needs to go is to don\u2019t try and win the tournament on the first day.<\/p>\n \u201cThe tournament lasts 15 days and you need to get through every single round the best you can, trying to be smart and not complicate your life in matches where you can finish maybe in two hours, not in three hours.<\/p>\n \u201cThat amount of time you spend on court, you might need that as the tournament goes on. I think he should enter the tournament thinking he can do very well.<\/p>\n \u201cBut he should be very humble, knowing that Roland Garros is, in my opinion, by far the toughest tournament of the year.<\/p>\n \u201cEspecially on the men\u2019s side, considering they play best of five with changing conditions and opponents every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch every moment of the French Open live and exclusive on discovery+<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>:\u00a0The 8 players with the most Masters 1000 titles on clay: Nadal with 26; Djokovic, Federer, Alcaraz feature<\/a><\/p>\n The post Carlos Alcaraz \u2018doesn\u2019t have any doubts\u2019 about French Open title defence, warns former No 2<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carlos Alcaraz will not have \u201cany doubts\u201d concerning his upcoming French Open title defence, according to former world No 2 Alex Corretja. Spanish star Alcaraz defeated Alexander Zverev in a five-set final to win his first Roland Garros title in 2024, and is considered by many the favourite to once again triumph in Paris. The […]<\/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-486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486","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=486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}ATP Tour News<\/h2>\n