US OPEN

September 3, 2026

Carlos Alcaraz

Press Conference

C. ALCARAZ/J. Faria

4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Carlos, congratulations. Moving on. We'll move to the questions.

Q. After not playing in a while, you know, when you lose a set early, did you like to get the extra work in, or would you rather just be quick and get off the court?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, I wanted to be quick, to be honest. I'm not going to lie.

But, you know, at the end, I realized that I just playing four set, it was really good for me, you know, to test everything physically, to test my body, how I feel, and tomorrow how I'm going to feel after this match, after four sets.

You know, I'm just happy that I just was able to play good tennis, during the four sets, but obviously the second match of the night, I just wanted to be quicker.

Q. It's been for me at least really impressive to see the quality of your forehand and how freely you've been hitting it from the start. I'm curious of when you were out and you couldn't use your wrist for a long time, was there ever any time when you wondered whether it might take some time for your forehand to feel like your old forehand again?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, obviously competition is a totally different world than practices. But, you know, I've been practicing normal, hitting the forehand with a lot of freedom and without thinking about any -- you know, about the wrist any time in the practices or in the matches.

I know once I step on the court, I just got to go for it every time. I got to feel normal. I have to, you know, hitting like I was hitting before the injury, and let's see what happens, you know, after that.

You know, I'm just feeling great. There is no reason to be afraid and not hitting normal.

Q. I wanted to ask about your kit. How did the collaboration come together for you? It does seem like you're always in sleeveless shirts for Nike. Is that something you asked them about? Do you feel better when you're -- is it like a comfort thing that you like having the tank tops?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, yeah, at the beginning, I suppose to play with the kit that I played in the mixed double. That was, you know, the first kit here in the US Open.

That collab with Travis came, and I couldn't say no. I mean, it's really cool stuff. I got to say thank you, you know, to Travis and his team. I mean, they made a great work. For me it was a privilege and experience working with them. So I'm just really happy that I could wear this kit in the matches, in the walk-on, and everything.

Yeah, it depends on the places that it's really hot, humid, I would rather play with tank tops, which I would say is much better for the sweat and everything. So I think here in New York, especially now in August, September, it's such a good thing wearing tank tops.

Q. Can you talk me through the match, because Jaime, he played really well in the opening set, and then you kind of turned things around. What do you think made the difference in your game of why the match kind of went more in your favorite so decisively?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, I would say, you know, yeah, I mean, night session is totally different world than day session. The ball becomes bigger. It's tougher to move the ball around.

Yeah, I had a break point. I didn't make it. Then, you know, after that, I just wanted to play short points, which was a mistake for me. I just needed to play passion, to play long rallies, three, four, five shots, and then go for it.

But I kind of built the point from the first shots. I didn't make it. So I would say that's why he got the break and got the first set.

After that, I realized what I had to do. I needed to be more passion, to build the points a little bit more since the beginning. Yeah, I got an early break, which helped me a lot to play with more calm, and then I'm thinking more clear about everything. I would say that was the turning point.

Q. Today is the first day that the matches have actually ended before midnight. I'm just curious if in the first couple of days of the tournament when the matches are going late, like Tiafoe and Zverev last night, are you ever up watching that, or are you asleep by then? Did you watch them in the last couple of nights, or were you asleep?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, I watch it, but I didn't finish. I didn't finish them obviously. I need to rest (smiling).

But, You know, it's a great feeling watching them, you know, when I was in the bed, you know, with everything done. I couldn't finish it, and waking up and realizing, what was the score, that's a great feeling.

You know, obviously I've been talking with my team that it's a great, great feeling when I just coming back from dinner, and some matches is playing. Then, you know, chilling in the room and watching those guys playing.

Q. A lot of people have talked about how long the season is, and some players are already tired, like Jodar today didn't do well. In that regard, is it, like, some kind of a plus for you in some sense to have had this, like -- even though you didn't choose it, but you have this four-month break, and now coming back and being maybe more fresh than other players?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Yeah, I mean, I took more than I wanted, to be honest, but you know, seeing how tight is the calendar, obviously I don't want to have this break because an injury. But in the future, I'm going to take some breaks, some long breaks. Maybe not four months, but one month, two months, missing some tournaments, because it's impossible to play them all.

I think they adding more important tournaments. You know, in a way they making us to play. You can say, no. You can keep one or two. You can decide your calendar, but there are some Masters 1000s, some Grand Slams, and we've been out playing 40 weeks if we got to play every mandatory tournament that the ATP, you know, required us to play.

So it's impossible, and we are seeing a lot of players getting injured, a lot of players getting tired. If they don't do anything about it, we are going to see even more in the future.

But for me, you know, taking this break because an injury, it wasn't that good, but you know, what I'm going to say is I'm going to take some breaks and missing some tournaments in the future, for sure.