By Karolos Grohmann
PARIS (Reuters) – Spanish world number one Carlos Alcaraz delivered a confident self-assessment in his first Grand Slam as the top seed after booking his fourth round spot on Friday, saying he was the complete article.
Alcaraz stormed past Canada’s Denis Shapovalov with a 6-1 6-4 6-2 demolition to set up a fourth round match against Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti.
“I am a complete player,” Alcaraz told a press conference when asked his strongest point as a player.
“I would say the stronger thing that I have on court is push to the limit. I push the opponent to the limit every time.”
Alcaraz became the youngest world number one when he was 19 last year. He is also the youngest top seed in Paris since Bjorn Borg back in 1976.
“I am over there, every point, playing great points and I don’t lose the focus,” he said.
The 20-year-old has already got one Grand Slam after winning the U.S. Open last year and is the favourite to lift the trophy on the Parisian clay.
He said his previous French Open in 2022 where he lost in the last eight as well as his U.S. Open title run had started worse than this year’s French Open.
“The U.S. Open, I was more in trouble (in the first week), as well. Some really, really tough matches at the beginning. It was really tough for me.”
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)
