Carlos Alcaraz sees himself as one of the Wimbledon favourites after Queen’s win

By Sports Desk June 25, 2023

Carlos Alcaraz considers himself one of the favourites to win Wimbledon after picking up his maiden grass-court title at Queen’s Club.

Alcaraz overtook Novak Djokovic as world number one and will be the top seed at SW19 after a commanding 6-4 6-4 win over Alex De Minaur in the final of the cinch Championships.

The 20-year-old Spaniard was playing only his third ever grass-court tournament, and his first outside of two underwhelming visits to Wimbledon.

In his first match at Queen’s he needed a third-set tie-break to get past French journeyman Arthur Rinderknech, but as the week wore on he grew in confidence on the surface and by Sunday looked to the manor born.

“I had no expectations,” said Alcaraz. “But you know, if I have no expectation, I’m gonna win it.

“But honestly, I have a lot of confidence right now coming into Wimbledon. I ended the week playing at the high level. So right now I feel one of the favourites to win Wimbledon.

“I have to get more experience on grass. Even if I win the title, I just played 11 matches in my career on grass, so I have to get more experience, more hours.

“But obviously after beating amazing guys, great players, and the level that I played, I consider myself one of the favourites or one of the players to be able to win Wimbledon.

“I saw a statistic that Novak has won more matches in Wimbledon than the other top 20 players (put together). What can I say about that, you know? I mean, Novak is the main favourite to win Wimbledon. That’s obvious.

“But I will try to play at this level, to have chances to beat him or make the final at Wimbledon.”

De Minaur had been hoping to match his British girlfriend Katie Boulter, who won a first career title in Nottingham last weekend, but he just came up short.

“The positive for the week, for me, I think has been my mentality, my mindset, how calm I have been on the court and how I have backed myself at every stage,” said the 24-year-old Australian.

“When I’m in that kind of mindset and attitude, I can beat anyone. Even if things don’t go my way, I’m content because I know I left it all out there and I try to play the way that I want to play.

“So that’s a big positive for me coming into Wimbledon.”

In the wheelchair final, Britain’s Alfie Hewett was beaten 4-6 6-3 7-5 by Joachim Gerard of Belgium.

Hewett then teamed up with compatriot Gordon Reid in the doubles and beat Gerard and Stephane Houdet in a third-set tie-break to lift the trophy for the first time as a pair.

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