ROLEX MONTE-CARLO MASTERS

April 11, 2026

Carlos Alcaraz

Press Conference

C. ALCARAZ/V. Vacherot

6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. Congratulations. We see you after the match having a little bit of practicing. There was something that you want to fix for tomorrow?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, to be honest, I just left the court, and just surprisingly I saw Samuel over there, and he told me, I reserve the court for 15, 20 minutes, hit some balls, you know, to be ready for tomorrow.

Yeah, I have been, like, playing in a style that, for example today, I didn't hit the ball as good as I wanted, to be honest, and a couple of serves, as well, that I just finished the match not serving that well.

And it is, I would say, the best thing I could do, like, playing for tournaments, like left the court feeling great, feeling the ball great for tomorrow. So that's why.

Q. The first Sinner-Alcaraz of the season, finally. Looks like everybody was craving for this match. What's the tactic plan of tomorrow gonna be for you?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: What do you mean? The practice plan or... Oh, the tactic? I'm not gonna say it here (smiling). I hope everyone will understand it.

But, you know, I have been watching his matches, you know, the whole tournament. I know what he's been improving. I know what he's doing great. If I'm not wrong, it's going to be the 17 meetings against him, so I know him pretty well.

So, you know, I will be ready, and of course I will talk to Samuel, and we will prepare the match in some way, but we cannot, you know, give any advice to him that what I'm gonna do tomorrow.

Q. No spoiler?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: No spoiler. You will see tomorrow, though.

Q. Last time it was at the ATP Finals indoors. It was indoors, so everybody felt that Jannik was favorite and he won the match. On clay, do you feel maybe that it's more your territory? Is there an extra responsibility to, yeah, stay the best of the two on clay, clay being your surface, if I can say?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, probably, let's say. I think he said it that clay court, it's not his favorite surface. His style, I would say, suits much better to other surfaces.

But the level he's playing on clay, it's great. That he plays better on the hard court or grass, doesn't matter, or doesn't mean that he plays really bad tennis on clay.

But I just, I would say, I feel more natural, I feel more comfortable playing on clay because of my style of tennis. But, you know, let's see. I can lose against him in every surface, you know, in every tournament, so I know that I have to be ready. I know that I have to play my best tennis if I want to beat him. So let's see what's gonna happen tomorrow.

If I'm feeling favorite or not, I would say against him there is not favorite in any matches. It depends about what or who's playing the best that day. So I'm super excited about who's going to be the best tomorrow.

Q. Congratulations for the final. My question is about the tour. The last 24 tournaments you played, you and Jannik, in 23 of those you basically won the title, you or Jannik. Today Jannik kind of smashed a little bit Sascha in the semifinal again, eighth time in a row. Are you surprised by the level of you and Jannik and all the others? Is it something that maybe you talk about behind the scenes or not?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, not really, something that we don't talk too much about. But there are some players that make some jokes about it.

But I don't know. I'm just trying to do my best, you know, in every match, in every tournament, and I would say Jannik, same thing. Just happy to see ourselves, you know, doing great in every tournament we play. The consistency we have, I think it's great. You know, every time that we play against each other, we raise our level to the top. So I would say in a way that the people is waiting for us to meet in every tournament.

The thing is we could say, like, we're not like superheroes and we're gonna win every match. It's going to be the first meeting in 2026, so that means that we lost in the previous rounds before. So let's see.

I'm seeing like other players, as well, catching us up, and let's see how it's gonna be. Personally, I'm just happy that every time that I lose or every time that Jannik lose, I think we learn from that loss, and then we come back the next tournament even better.

So to see that stats for me, I'm just feeling great.

Q. Talking about the different surfaces, do you like to have very different surface, I mean, the grass very different from clay, the hard very different from grass and indoors? Or do you prefer that they are more or less equal? Do you think, as a tennis fan, what do you think is better, to have very different surfaces in terms of speed and bounce, or is better if it's more or less the same?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, no, I feel like it is great for the sport to have such different surfaces, but, you know, in terms of when we play on hard court, I would say to have almost the same speed. If we're switching to indoor courts, then we can do whatever, so they can be, like, super faster than the hard court, but in terms of we play on hard court one tournament with a court speed and the next we would play on the same surfaces but totally different speed, that's sometimes tricky.

But having clay court, hard court, grass that is totally different style of tennis you have to play, I think it's great, because it switch to a player that can play better on those surfaces and getting a lot of points to be in the ranking, and as a top player, you should get used to the conditions quicker than anybody else. And that's, I would say, why you can call it a real champion, you know, a player that you can see them playing such great tennis in every surface and adapt his game pretty well to that surface. So, for me, it's great to have such different in terms of clay, hard court, indoor, or grass.