Carlos Alcaraz will adopt a slowly slowly approaching approach while he realizes to become the third man to win three consecutive titles to Indian Wells, where he could find a member of this exclusive club, Novak Djokovic, standing on his way in the quarter -finals.
“I will try not to think about it,” said Alcaraz about his candidacy to match the triple feat directed by Djokovic in 2014, 2015 and 2016 and Roger Federer in 2004, ’05 and ’06.
“I’m going to try just to take advantage of it,” Alcaraz told journalists on Tuesday while he was preparing for the Elite ATP Masters 1000 tournament which starts on Wednesday along a WTA 1000 tournament.
“This tournament, every time I come here, I love to practice, play so much. Everything for me here is so easy.
“So I’m going to try not to think about it, just sink and see how it will be, the tournament. But it’s something that for me would be great to achieve.”
Alcaraz, coming out of a quarter -final defeat at the Qatar Open, is the second second behind the Alexander Zverev in Germany, who finished finalist at Australian Open at the Italian number Jannik Sinner.
Last month, the sinner accepted a three -month late ban after testing positive a year ago for traces of prohibited clostebol.
The case initially saw him exempt when the authorities accepted his explanation that the drug entered his system when a physiotherapist using it to treat an injury gave him a massage.
The World Anti -Doping Agency appealed, the case dragging by the Triumph of Sinner to the Australian Open this year.
Alcaraz said that the absence of sinner does not change his “at all” approach.
“I mean, Jannik does not play, but there are a lot of the best players in the world playing here,” he said. “I think the draw is really open.
“I’m just focused on my things, on myself, and I’m trying to play good tennis here.”
The Spaniard could face a formidable quarter -final test in Djokovic, which has five Indian Wells titles in total.
The Serbian superstar Djokovic has its 5-3 tête-à-tête career, including a triumph in the quarter-final in four sets at the Australian Open.
The 32 seed players receive a Bye in the first round, and Djokovic could face a first second round match against Nick Kyrgios.
The Australian, who fell in Djokovic during the Wimbledon 2022 final, will open against a qualifier.
Zverev, seeded, leads a first title of Indian Wells while Taylor Fritz American, third seeded, raised the trophy in the California desert in 2022.
Casper Ruud, Norway, is in fourth row and Russian Daniil Medvedev – a finalist in Alcaraz in the past two years – is fifth row.
The first round spotlight will be on the Joao Fonseca Joao Fonseca, the 18 -year -old Brazilian who upset Andre Rublev to the Australian Open and raised his first ATP title to Buenos Aires in February.
Fonseca will open his campaign against Jacob Fearnley from Great Britain, who climbed from the outside of the Top 500 in the world ranking of the year last year at the 81st.
BB / RCW
