A jubilant Carlos Alcaraz says he wants to be considered as one of the all-time greats.
The Spaniard won his second successive Wimbledon title on Sunday, beating the seven-time champion Novak Djokovic 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (4), taking his grand slam tally to four before his 22nd birthday.
“Obviously it’s a really great start of my career, but I have to keep going,” said Alcaraz, who is only the sixth man in the Open era to do the double of Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same year. He joins a list featuring Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal (twice), Björn Borg (three times) and Rod Laver.
“It is a great feeling even thinking about being French Open winner and Wimbledon champion the same year, that few players have done it before,” Alcaraz said. “It’s unbelievable. I try to realise that I won Wimbledon twice and try to feel like it is the same feeling as last year.
“I have to keep building my path. At the end of my career, I want to sit at the same table as the big guys. That’s my main goal. That’s my dream right now. It doesn’t matter if I already won four grand slams at the age of 21. If I don’t keep going, all these tournaments for me, it doesn’t matter. I really want to keep going. I will try to keep winning and end my career with a lot of them.”
Alcaraz said he has not set a goal for how many slams he thinks he can win. “I don’t know what is my limit. I don’t want to think about it. I just want to keep enjoying my moment, just to keep dreaming. So let’s see if at the end of my career it’s going to be 25, 30, 15, four. I don’t know. All I want to say is I want to keep enjoy, and let’s see what is the future bring to me.”
The two-time champion said he took advantage of a below-par performance from Djokovic in the first two sets. “Obviously it was a great match for me. Obviously Novak didn’t play his best the first two sets, a lot of mistakes. I made the most of that.”
Alcaraz has now won two of the year’s three grand slam men’s singles titles, the world No 1 Jannik Sinner winning the other, and the Spaniard said he relishes the rivalry. “I think being with Jannik, 21 years old, 22, 23 years old in the top of the ranking, winning the grand slams, I think it is good for tennis to have new faces winning the big things and fighting for the big tournaments.
“I’m really glad to have him there. As I said many times, we have a really good rivalry, as young players that are coming up, fighting for these things as well. I think it’s great for the sport, for tennis and I think for the players, as well.”
Alcaraz says there is still room for improvement. “I have to keep improving everything, I guess. My forehand, at this level I think it can be better. Every year should be better.
“I think my game in general I can improve it and deal with the situations. I can’t stop like this one. I have to keep growing up and keep improving.”
