{"id":171494,"date":"2025-09-30T23:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T23:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/171494\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T23:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T23:30:10","slug":"carlos-alcaraz-hails-best-season-so-far-as-he-matches-rafael-nadal-record-with-japan-open-title-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/171494\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz hails ‘best season so far’ as he matches Rafael Nadal record with Japan Open title win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> called 2025 his “best season so far” after triumphing at the Japan Open with a 6-4 6-4 win over Taylor Fritz, nine days after losing to the American in the Laver Cup final.<\/p>\n

It was Alcaraz’s ninth consecutive final this year, matching Rafael Nadal’s record, and he is 7-2 in finals since losing in the round of 64 at the Miami Open in March.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s been my best season so far without a doubt,” Alcaraz said<\/a>. “Eight titles, 10 finals. That shows how hard I\u2019ve worked just to be able to experience these moments and accomplish my goals. <\/p>\n

“I didn\u2019t start the year that good, struggling emotionally, so how I came back from that, I\u2019m just really proud of myself, and of all the people around me who have helped me to be in this position.”<\/p>\n

In beating Fritz, Alcaraz claimed his 24th singles career title at ATP level at just 22. Only Nadal achieved that number at a younger age, doing so at 21 years and 321 days.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard began the week in Tokyo with injury troubles after hurting his ankle, which has now forced him out of the Shanghai Masters despite his triumph in Japan.<\/p>\n

“I enjoyed every single second, [apart from] the five minutes I was on the floor after I hurt my ankle,” Alcaraz said about his debut in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m really happy with the level that I played, with everything. Starting the week not good with the ankle, and the way that I came back from that, I\u2019m just really happy about it.”<\/p>\n

Alcaraz also paid tribute to his medical team and in particular his physio Juanjo Moreno, who he called the “best physio in the world,”<\/a> earlier in the week.Alcaraz said<\/a>: “My team, I\u2019m always really lucky to have you. Special shout-out to Juanjo after I fell on my ankle earlier in the tournament, I\u2019m grateful.”<\/p>\n

After his superb debut in Tokyo, Alcaraz moved to 67 wins for the season but he will have to wait a little longer to add to that impressive record after announcing his withdrawal from Shanghai.<\/p>\n

“I’m very disappointed to announce that I won’t be able to play the Rolex Shanghai Masters this year!” Alcaraz wrote on Instagram Stories. <\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, I\u2019ve been struggling with some physical issues and, after discussing with my team, we believe the best decision is to rest and recover.<\/p>\n

“I was really looking forward to playing in front of the amazing fans in Shanghai again. I hope to be back soon and see my Chinese fans next year!”<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old is within touching distance of rival Sinner’s tally of 73 wins from last year.<\/p>\n

Watch and stream top tennis action live and on demand on TNT Sports and discovery+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz called 2025 his “best season so far” after triumphing at the Japan Open with a 6-4…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[73193,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-171494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp-tokyo","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-tennis","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}