After clinching back-to-back Grand Slam titles at the French Open and the Wimbledon Championships, Carlos Alcaraz was the favorite against Novak Djokovic in the Paris Olympics final. However, the Serb showed why he is a true legend and put on a gritty display to prevail over Alcaraz in straight sets. What followed was Djokovic’s maiden Olympic gold medal and the wait continued for Alcaraz to be at the top of the podium. However, the Spaniard is not done for this season.

Alcaraz has already begun his hard-court preparations with the US Open in sight. Following the Paris Olympics setback, the Spanish sensation outlined one of his most important goals this year, beginning from the Cincinnati Masters this week.

Ahead of his tournament opener, Alcaraz was involved in an interview where he highlighted his biggest goal now that the Paris Olympics was done and dusted. The Spaniard revealed, “Obviously, being number 1 is a goal every time I’m [behind] and the race is an important ranking for me. At the end of the year, if you finish the No. 1 race, in the classification [it is] quite similar, so you are going to finish the No. 1.”

Alcaraz, the second seed here, has received a bye in the opening round and will take on the winner of the match between Gael Monfils and Alexei Popyrin in the second round. Despite the US Open not far away, he wants to take it one step at a time. Alcaraz further said, “I’m focused on going to each tournament, thinking about playing great tennis, on making a good result just to improve in the race, and this year, finishing the year as No. 1 is one of my main goals right now. So I’m looking forward to doing it and we’ll see.”

At 21, the Spaniard will have another chance to get over his Olympics setback. However, he is unsure about his future prospects at the mega-event and gave Rafael Nadal’s example to justify his thoughts.

Is Rafael Nadal’s Olympics stint playing on Carlos Alcaraz’s mind?

Back in 2008, Rafael Nadal went on to win the gold medal at the Beijing Olympic Games. However, he failed to make it to the final in the subsequent editions. Alcaraz remembered his idol’s Olympic performance while talking about his chances in the upcoming editions of the Olympic Games.

Alcaraz opened up on this subject by saying, “Obviously nobody knows what’s going to happen in the future, if I’m going to reach the final again. For example, Rafael Nadal won the gold medal in 2008 and he couldn’t make the final again in the Olympic Games. I’m probably going to have another chance in the future, but I’m not sure about it.”

However, if the Spaniard continues to maintain his current standards, it won’t be a surprise to see him go one step further and win the Olympic gold medal. Nonetheless, for now, Alcaraz will be focused on his hard-court campaign and will look to win the title in Cincinnati.