Racquet at the Rock exhibition vs. Frances Tiafoe at Newark\u2019s Prudential Center on December 7th<\/a>, shared his 2026 mission statement: Dethrone two-time champion Sinner and win the Australian Open to complete the career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n\u201cAbsolutely, it is a really good goal for me to complete the calendar Grand Slam,\u201d Alcaraz told the media in today\u2019s Zoom call. \u201cHaving that record to be the youngest player to complete it is going to be a really good achievement and accomplishment to myself. So I\u2019m really looking forward to it in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
Six-time Grand Slam champion Alcaraz is a champion for all surfaces making history as the youngest man to capture Grand Slam championships on the three major surfaces: hard court (2022 and 2025 US Open), grass (2023-2024 Wimbledon) and his native surface red clay at Roland Garros (2024-2025).\u00a0<\/p>\n
The worst position in tennis right now is trailing Jannik Sinner in a major match. Frontrunner Sinner squashes even elites when he\u2019s up in the score. Yet Alcaraz can play even bolder and shine even brighter when he\u2019s down. The Spanish shotmaker showed it all fighting off three championship points to break Sinner\u2019s heart in the Roland Garros final epic for the ages\u00a0 in June.<\/p>\n
The question is: Can Alcaraz, whose best Australian Open results are back-to-back quarterfinal finishes in 2024-2025, defuse Sinner at the Italian\u2019s best Slam in Melbourne?<\/p>\n
Alcaraz suggests lack of a tune-up tournament Down Under has hurt his Happy Slam quest in the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could be a great record to be honest. I\u2019m really looking forward to winning Australia one day,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cI\u2019m really excited about it. That\u2019s the good point of it\u2014it\u2019s the first Grand Slam.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI start the season playing straight away a Grand Slam which could be tricky with no rhythm at all, not competition rhythm, lets say. But I\u2019m gonna have a great pre season to get ready.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, having that record of being the youngest to complete the career Grand Slam is something that sticks in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fifteen years ago, Rafael Nadal, Alcaraz\u2019s tennis hero and Olympic doubles partner, won the 2010 US Open to complete the career Grand Slam at the age of 24. Roger Federer, Alcaraz\u2019s stylistic inspiration, was 27 years old when he defeated Robin Soderling in the 2009 Roland Garros final to win his first French Open and complete the career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz, who fell to Grand Slam king Novak Djokovic in a four-set AO quarterfinal last January, won a career-best eight titles in 2025 and says he\u2019s a better\u2014and smarter\u2014player now than he was at the start of this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cA few losses I haven\u2019t played my best tennis at the beginning of the season then I realized what I have to do on and off the court,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cThen after that, from Monte-Carlo through the end of the year, it\u2019s been my best year, my best tennis I ever played. I\u2019m really happy with how I handled everything the pressure\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned how to see the situations much better on the court. Mentally, I am stronger and I think for me that is the most important thing. That I became really stronger from the losses and when I felt really really bad. That\u2019s the moment I\u2019m really proud of and that\u2019s what I take from this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, November 18, 2025Photo credit: Antoine Couvercelle\/ROLEX The Happy Slam is a historic target…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-300270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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