The most ambitious Alcaraz arrives in Doha: "I hate the feeling of losing, I set goals for myself in these tournaments"

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🎾 Carlos Alcaraz vs Andrey Rublev

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Carlos Alcaraz has found the formula to face 'lesser' category tournaments with the greatest of motivations. He is achieving this at ATP Doha 2026, which had the difficult task of following the most important event of his career, the Australian Open where he achieved the Career Grand Slam and placed his name in the tennis Olympus. Logically, perhaps, it would have been easy for him to let go, especially in a match where you start by conceding the first set to a Karen Khachanov in top form...

But Carlos is no longer the player prone to disconnecting. He drew strength to turn around a match in which he admitted starting tired, where he didn't quite find his rhythm during the first hour and fifteen minutes but showed a range of options to completely change the script. Listening to him at the post-match press conference, one understands why mentally this is a different Carlos: reflections on how he sets unique goals for these types of events, the reaffirmation that the fighting spirit is non-negotiable (and what kept him in the match), and a nice analysis of why matches against Khachanov bring out the best in him, all in very interesting responses.

Alcaraz explained why he had difficulties beating Khachanov and demonstrated his tremendous ambition when asked about Grand Slams

- Feelings after a great victory

"I feel exhausted, that's for sure. However, happy and proud of the way I played. I think I played at a high level, consistently good throughout the match. He started off playing very well, hitting great shots and displaying brilliant tennis when it mattered. It was a very tough, close match, but I'm very happy to have achieved the victory in the end."

- From the first set, Khachanov did not reach deuce in any of Carlos' service games

"I wasn't aware of that statistic. When you're in the match, what matters is going point by point. Once you win your service game, you have to face the next one, you don't think about the previous one: you try to focus on doing things the right way, ensuring your timing on your serve is good in each game. I wasn't concerned about the points I was losing or whether I was serving well or not. I was thinking about going objective to objective with every serve, but yes, my serve was a great weapon today, and I realize I barely gave any break chances in the whole match."

- Tactical and mental changes after losing the first set

"I don't think my mentality changed much. I had some break points in the first set that I couldn't capitalize on. I had a set point. I knew I was going to have my chances. Honestly, at the beginning of the match, I was quite physically tired, so I tried to approach the match mentally in the right way, trying to be positive, to stay calm. After the first set, I tried to keep fighting, draw energy from anywhere, I suppose. I kept fighting and running in case he gave me any chance, or at least force him to take me off the court to win the match. My mentality was to keep at it, fighting."

- On whether he thinks about the number of Grand Slams he can end up winning, if numbers are something on his mind

"I am a very ambitious guy. I hate the feeling of losing. Every time I enter a tournament or a match, I think about giving my best version. I want to win. I want to win tournaments, lift trophies, that's my mentality. When you play so many matches in a year, both physically and mentally, everything is very demanding, so my big goals are the biggest tournaments in the world. When I don't play them, I try to set other goals in my head to be able to achieve them. This is what I try to do in these tournaments, to then focus on the largest ones."

- The reason his battles against Khachanov are at such a high level

"I can't remember the last time I faced him on hard court before this match, but I do remember when I faced him on clay. His style doesn't change much depending on the surface: he plays at a very high pace from the baseline. He changes directions very easily, he loves that. His serve is powerful. It's hard to find windows of opportunity in his game, that's why it's so challenging to play against him. I'm happy that every match has gone my way, I can only say that each duel against him is a battle. Every match we face each other in makes me enjoy, they are fantastic."

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, El Alcaraz más ambicioso llega a Doha: "Odio la sensación de perder, me marco metas en estos torneos"