AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 16, 2026

Carlos Alcaraz

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Carlos, welcome back to Melbourne. This is the only Grand Slam title missing from your collection. How motivated are you to win the career Grand Slam here over the next couple of weeks?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, as I said before, I think this my main goal for this year. It's, yeah, the first tournament, the main goal.

So it's going to be really interesting for me how I prepared, which I think I just made a really good pre-season, just to be in a good shape.

I'm just hungry for the title, hungry to do a really good result here. I'm just getting ready as much as I can. I'm really excited about the tournament begin.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. We heard from Jannik speak about how important it was to still have Darren with him on his team. He's like the dad of the team. Not having Juan Carlos with you, how difficult is that heading into a new season and a Grand Slam?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, I just build my team, which is the same as I'm having, you know, last year.

With Juan Carlos, we decide to do it. I'm just having plenty of confident of the team that I have right now. I'm just, as I said, the practices has been really well. I'm just feeling well. So just excited about the tournament begin with the team that I have right now.

Q. Carlos, just on the career Grand Slam, I think you said at the end of last year, if you were offered one Australian Open or two other Grand Slam titles this year, you'd choose one Australian Open. If it was one Australian Open or all three of the others, which would you choose?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, that's a good one (smiling).

I don't know. I don't know which one I would choose. Obviously complete the career Grand Slam is something amazing to do, be able to be the youngest that have done it before, you know, is even better.

But three are three. Three Grand Slam are three Grand Slam (smiling). So I don't know. It is a question that I got to think about it, not just a quick answer.

Q. I'll come back to you.

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Yeah, please (smiling).

Q. There's been a lot of reporting about what happened with Juan Carlos. I think a lot of people are still kind of confused about what happened. I would love to ask you what happened?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, it is something we just decide. You know, I think chapter of life that is a time that has to be end. We decided like this.

I got to say that I'm really grateful for this seven years I've been with Juan Carlos. I learned a lot. Probably thanks to him I'm the player that I am right now.

But internally we decided like this. We closed this chapter in mutual. We, as I said, both are still friends, good relationship. But we just decided like this.

Q. You said the off-season is going well. In light of the change, was there any difference in the routines? Did you look at it as an opportunity to do different things in this pre-season?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: I mean, there wasn't any changes at all. We just was really focused on the things that we had to do, the things that we think we should improve coming from this season.

As I said, I have the same team that I had last year. Just one member missing. But the rest of the team, everyone are the same. So we didn't change the routine at all. We just going through the pre-season and the season in the same way, probably with the improvement that I really want to do.

Q. I'm curious about your experience in Korea. It's a stadium that was packed, and people are very excited. Also you went to Tokyo last year. How do you feel about the popularity of tennis in East Asia?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, it was really interesting to see, to be honest because, yeah, I talked with some players that have been playing, you know, in Asia the last 10 years, for example. They have told me that the people are getting more into the tennis year after year, which is great.

My first time in Korea, and I felt the love and the support, even though I think there weren't too many tournaments, or just one. I don't even remember when was it.

The tennis are not really famous in terms of tournaments or events there in Korea, for example. The way that I was received there, it was insane, it was crazy, which I just loved.

It is great for the tennis and for myself to see how important is the tennis world in those countries.

Q. Can you talk about how the Australian Open, what your experience of the Australian Open is, compared to some other tournaments? What do you love about being in Melbourne? Are there particular places you try to go?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, for me, Australia is one of the tournaments that they always making upgrades. I'm coming here every year, and I can see changes to be better or to make the players feeling more comfortable on the tournament.

It is the biggest facilities for the player in terms of courts, in terms of courts that have the roof on it, practice courts, facilities to recover. Everything here is really, really easy for us. I just love coming here every year.

Obviously the trip is not the best one. Too long (smiling). Once we are here, I just enjoy so much.

Any place that I really want to go? I gone to, you know, not too many places, but few of them that I really like. Peaceful places that I can walk around and just be with my team really, really calm. For me, it's great then to prepare the matches.

Q. You were working on your serve last year to try and get this rhythm. It worked out pretty well by the end of the year. Then we see videos where you're continuing to tweak your serve. What is going on there? What are you trying to do? What could get better than how it was, say, at the US Open?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: You wanted to say it's really similar to Djokovic serve (smiling). I know you want to.

No, I don't know. I think everyone has to make changes, small details. For me the serve is something that I really want to be better every year, in every tournament. I just putting constant work on the serve.

To be honest, on the pre-season, we didn't make changes in the serve, but it doesn't mean that I didn't do.

I would say, like, for myself, I just making changes all the time, every tournament, every day, without someone has to tell me. Like, for example, I just changing the movement a little bit.

Now with this movement on the serve, I just feel really, really comfortable, smooth, really calm and peaceful rhythm, which I think it helps me a lot to do a better serve.

Let's see how it's going to be this year. Probably you're going to see another change, I don't know if the next months or at the end of the year. I just make constant changes in every shot. It's just about really small details.

Q. Are you trying to make it like Djokovic?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: No, no, no. I didn't think about, or I wasn't thinking about making the same serve as Djokovic. But at the end, I can even see the similarities (smiling).