Shanghai, Oct 8 (IANS): World No.3 Carlos Alcaraz highlighted the importance of staying mentally fresh as he gears up for the Shanghai Masters challenge with the 2026 season approaching its close.
Alcaraz, who was out of action for over four months due to his wrist injury, recently returned to winning ways after bagging the Japan Open title in Tokyo, an ATP 500 event.
He now gears up for the eighth ATP Masters 1000 event of the year in Shanghai and looks to be mentally fresh and ready to take the challenge on. “I’m feeling fresh mentally, which for me it’s the most important thing,” Alcaraz said in his pre-tournament press conference, as quoted by ATP. “I’m ready to take the challenge of this tournament. If we see a couple years back, probably this swing or this part of the season, it’s never been my best one.
“Right now, I just want to be in a good state for this tournament, because I really want to win the tournaments, this one and the tournaments that I have in a couple months at least one day. So right now, I think it’s an extra boost that I have for the rest of the season,” he added.
Alcaraz returned to action at the US Open 2026, where he showed his form with a quarterfinal appearance but failed to defend the title as he fell to American Ben Shelton.
He then was in action in Tokyo, where he won his third tour-level title of the year, after having won the Australian Open and the Qatar Open in Doha earlier.
Alcaraz trained with Holger Rune for a week in August and offered encouragement for the Dane, who himself had an injury hiatus of 11 months due to an Achilles injury in October last year.
“It’s a slow process. The injury he had, it’s a really complicated one because I would say the movement in tennis, I would say it’s almost everything. I think his style is about the movement, to move well on court and cover the court as much as he can,” Alcaraz said.
“He might lose some matches right now, but personally I’m really happy to see him back on court. He came to Murcia to practice with me one week. Then I was seeing him playing good. It is about to get into matches, to get into the rhythm of competition, which is really, really important. I wish him all the best. I’m happy that he came back on tour. He has to be patient because it’s going to be a slow process, but he’s going to get to the point he wants to get,” he added.
The Spaniard has received a bye in the first round in Shanghai and will be featuring in the second round against either Juan Manuel Cerundolo or Colombian qualifier Nicolas Mejia. He hasn’t made it past the quarterfinals in any of his previous appearances in the tournament.
“I just love it every time that I come here, because I think they appreciate good tennis, the matches, every time that you just walk around, I think it’s great. The people are super into it,” Alcaraz said.
