Carlos Alcaraz says he plans to carry on with his annual post-French Open trips after unwinding from his historic five-set triumph over Jannik Sinner in Paris last weekend with three days of partying in Ibiza.
“Probably,” the Spaniard said on Sunday as he was preparing for Queen’s Club, which starts on Monday. “It’s kind of the middle of the season. It’s really, really intense, the clay season. So soon after Roland Garros is the best moment to go anywhere. My friends are going Ibiza every year. So I thought I’ll go to Ibiza as well. But it doesn’t matter the place you’re going, it’s time to turn off your mind a little bit, to reset physically, mentally and coming back to the grass season as good as I can.”
Over the past few years, a short, sweet trip to Ibiza after a clay court season has become Alcaraz’s annual mid-season excursion and his presence there has received significant attention on social media. His Netflix documentary this year revealed that his previous trip had drawn objections from members of his team who believed that he should be more disciplined. Last year Alcaraz followed up his time off in Ibiza by winning his second Wimbledon title, defeating Novak Djokovic for a second consecutive year in the final. Unsurprisingly, there were no objections this time: “They didn’t [object],” he said. “They knew at the beginning that I was going to go, 100%.”
This year, Alcaraz said, his experience was far calmer. “Once I went to bed so late. That’s the craziest thing [I did]. Obviously I did some shots as well, but nothing more than that. More chill and as a normal person does.”
During his time away, the Spaniard had more time to reflect on the decisive role he played in one of the great grand slam finals as he recovered from triple championship point down to defeat his great rival after 5hr 29min on court.
“[There are] a lot of videos from that match, from that moment, match point down and I still watch it sometimes, and I still don’t believe that I come back from that moment,” he said. “So sometimes it’s difficult to realise that I’m in this position, that I won the French Open, watching the videos from 40-love, in that moment. So I’m still watching those videos.”
after newsletter promotion
Alcaraz is the top seed at Queen’s this week and the second seed is Jack Draper, the British No 1, who will tackle his first grass court season as a top player and try to navigate all the pressure that comes with it. Draper, who defeated Alcaraz here last year, faces Jenson Brooksby in the first round.
