Monaco, April 6 Top seed Carlos Alcaraz is excited about the start of his clay-court season at the Monte-Carlo Masters, and said, "Being in Monaco as the defending champion is something I'm not really thinking about."
Alcaraz, who is competing in Monte-Carlo for the third time, is the defending champion at the first clay-court ATP Masters 1000 event of the season. In 2025, he began his clay-court season after consecutive defeats to Jack Draper in Indian Wells and David Goffin in Miami. However, since arriving in the Principality, he has won 33 of his next 34 matches.
"I'm really happy to be back here in Monte-Carlo, the first tournament of the clay season, at least for me, which is great," Alcaraz told ATP Media on Thursday. "I just really missed it. I'm going to try to enjoy this beautiful surface and this beautiful tournament as much as possible. It's great."
"Being here as the defending champion is something I'm just not really thinking about. I'm just trying to be in a good mindset and trying to get better after every practice, and let's see how it goes," he said.
"This week was really important. I would say that was the turning point of 2025. After the feeling I got here, I just got better and better. I understood and realized how I should play after this week. That's why I had an exceptional year after this one. I do remember I didn't play that well, but everything that came after that, it was an amazing moment for me," he added.
Clay has always been a successful surface for Alcaraz, who has won 84.4 per cent of his matches on this surface, according to ATP Stats. Only Rafael Nadal (90.5%) and Bjorn Borg (86.1%) have better winning percentages. This provides a good opportunity for the Spaniard to get back on track after a third-round loss in Miami to Sebastian Korda.
"I started playing tennis on clay courts. I grew up playing on clay courts. I started playing at four, and I didn't touch a hard court until I was eight years old, and I barely touched it then, so I was always on clay courts," Alcaraz said.
"That's why I feel comfortable playing on clay. And when the clay season is over, you have to wait almost a year to play again. So it's a really long period of time, at least for me," he said.
Alcaraz, who is also in a battle for the World No. 1 ranking with Jannik Sinner, will face either former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka or Sebastian Baez in the second round.