Carlos Alcaraz starts the pre-season with his appearance in Melbourne | ATP Tour

Carlos Alcaraz

Alcaraz kicks off the preseason with an appearance in Melbourne & the Career Grand Slam

The Spaniard will be chasing his fifth major title at the Australian Open in January

December 11, 2024

Carlos Alcaraz is back on the court. On Monday, the Spaniard officially began his first season with his club Real Sociedad Club de Campo in Murcia, close to his home in Palmar, as he prepares for the upcoming 2025 season.

Alcaraz ended his year playing in the Davis Cup Final 8 in Malaga, where Rafael Nadal played the final event of his illustrious career. After Spain bowed out in the quarter-finals against the Netherlands, Alcaraz took a vacation with friends in the Dominican Republic, using it as an opportunity to cross the ocean, relax on a boat, and play golf.

The break marks the end of a remarkable year in 2024 in which he won the Roland Garros and Wimbledon titles, a silver medal at the Olympic Games in Paris, the ATP Masters 1000 title in Indian Wells and the ATP 500 crown in Beijing, where he there. Jannik Sinner in an exciting final.

Alcaraz, who will end the year at No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings, behind Sinner and Alexander Zverev, will begin his 2025 campaign at the Australian Open, a tournament he has yet to win. If Alcaraz were to claim victory in Melbourne, he would become the youngest man in the history of the game to complete the Career Grand Slam.

In an effort to get rid of it, the 21-year-old has put in a tough training schedule in the weeks before he boards the plane that will take him to Down Under in early January. Once there, he will be trying to usurp defending champion Sinner.

In the coming days, Alcaraz will be training at the Ferrero Tennis Academy in Villena with Flavio Cobolli, who is number 32 in the world. The Spanish player’s sessions will be managed by Juan Carlos Ferrero and Samuel Lopez, who has officially joined the team from Murcia.

On Friday Alcaraz, who finished the 2024 season with 54 wins and 13 losses, will be on the occasion of the official opening of ‘Los pies en la tierra’ (Feet on the ground), an exhibition of the Alcaraz Foundation that seeks to highlight the importance of equal opportunities. children with a journey in the life of a tennis player.

Editor’s note: This story was translated from ATPtour.com/es.