{"id":588906,"date":"2026-04-06T10:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T10:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/588906\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T10:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T10:21:10","slug":"carlos-alcaraz-excited-for-return-to-clay-i-just-missed-it-so-much-atp-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/588906\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz excited for return to clay: \u2018I just missed it so much\u2019 | ATP Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monte-Carlo
\n Alcaraz excited for return to clay: \u2018I just missed it so much\u2019<\/p>\n

World No. 1 explains how Monte-Carlo was critical to his 2026 season<\/p>\n

April 06, 2026<\/p>\n

\"Carlos<\/p>\n

Corinne Dubreuil\/ATP Tour<\/p>\n

Carlos Alcaraz, set to compete in Monte-Carlo for the third time, is the defending champion at the first clay-court ATP Masters 1000 event of the season.
\n By ATP Staff<\/p>\n

It is safe to say that top seed Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> is excited for the start of his clay-court season at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just really, really happy to be back here in Monte-Carlo, the first tournament of the clay season, at least for me, which is great,\u201d Alcaraz told ATP Media Thursday. \u201cI just missed it so much to be honest. I\u2019m going to try to enjoy as much as I can this beautiful surface, this beautiful tournament. It\u2019s great. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo be here as the defending champion, it\u2019s something that I\u2019m just not thinking about to be honest. I\u2019m just trying to be in a good [mindset] and trying to get better after every practice, and let’s see how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2025, Alcaraz began his clay-court season off the back of two consecutive defeats, to Jack Draper<\/a> at Indian Wells and David Goffin<\/a> in Miami. But from his arrival in the Principality, he won 33 of his next 34 matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis week was really, really important. I would say that was the turning point of 2025,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cAfter the feeling that I got here, I just got better and better. I understood and I realised how I should play after this week. That’s why I just did an exceptional year after this one. I do remember I didn’t play that well, but everything that came after that, it was an amazing moment for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cATP<\/a><\/p>\n

Clay has always been a happy hunting ground for Alcaraz, who has won 84.4 per cent of his matches on the surface according to Infosys ATP Stats. Only Rafael Nadal<\/a> (90.5%) and Bjorn Borg<\/a> (86.1%) own better winning percentages on record, so it is a good opportunity for the Spaniard to get back on track after a third-round loss in Miami to Sebastian Korda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started playing tennis on clay courts. I grew up playing on clay courts. I started playing at four and I just [didn\u2019t] touch a hard court until eight years old and I just touched it barely, so I was always on clay courts,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cThat’s why I got the feeling of playing the clay season and when the clay season is over you have to wait almost one year to play again. So it’s a really long period of time, at least for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

You May Also Like: How Sinner can become World No. 1 in Monte-Carlo<\/a><\/p>\n

Alcaraz, who is also in the middle of a battle for World No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings with Jannik Sinner<\/a>, will be confident knowing he lifted the Monte-Carlo trophy last year. The 22-year-old will face former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka<\/a> or Sebastian Baez<\/a> in the second round.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say there is not a better tournament to start the clay season than here. I would say, in terms of views, it is the most beautiful tournament we have on Tour,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cIt’s super aesthetic. When the clay court is super good, perfect at the beginning of the match, it\u2019s super aesthetic. It\u2019s really beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monte-Carlo Alcaraz excited for return to clay: \u2018I just missed it so much\u2019 World No. 1 explains how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-588906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}