(Reuters) – Carlos Alcaraz makes his Queen’s Club Championships debut this week and the Spaniard knows he has a lot of adjustments to make to his game if he is to be a contender at the grasscourt event and at Wimbledon next month.
Alcaraz is coming off a disappointing French Open where the 20-year-old, who had warmed up for the claycourt Grand Slam with titles in Barcelona and Madrid, suffered severe cramp during a 6-3 5-7 6-1 6-1 semi-final defeat by Novak Djokovic.
Alcaraz will be playing in only the third grasscourt tournament of his career at tour level this week and he said his practice on the surface had been limited.
“I arrived in London Saturday morning and I had my first practice on grass,” he said. “I wasn’t able to practice too much at home as we have no grass courts.
“I need to adapt my movement and shots on the grass, but I’m really happy with the practice I have had here.”
Alcaraz, who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon last year before winning the U.S. Open on the hard courts of New York, said how well he moves on grass would be key.
“You need to be more careful than other surfaces,” Alcaraz, who plays Arthur Fils on Tuesday, said. “The most comfortable is going to the net and playing aggressively all the time. For me it’s similar to other surfaces with my style.
“There are a lot of players who slice on grass. I’m not one of them so I have to think about movement. I have to be focused on every movement and shot.
“For me it’s more tiring when you’re moving on grass. It’s totally different, so you have to be really specific.”
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
