Monaco, April 6 (IANS) Top seed Carlos Alcaraz is excited for the start of his clay-court season at the Monte-Carlo Masters and said, “To be in Monaco as the defending champion is something that he is not thinking about.”

Alcaraz, who is set to compete 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 off the back of two consecutive defeats, to Jack Draper at Indian Wells and David Goffin in Miami. But from his arrival in the Principality, he won 33 of his next 34 matches.

“I’m just really, 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 missed it so much to be honest. I’m going to try to enjoy as much as I can this beautiful surface, this beautiful tournament. It’s great.”

“To be here as the defending champion, it’s something that I’m just not thinking about to be honest. 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, really important. I would say that was the turning point of 2025. After the feeling that I got here, I just got better and better. I understood and I realised how I should play after this week. That’s why I just did 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 happy hunting ground for Alcaraz, who has won 84.4 per cent of his matches on the surface according to ATP Stats. Only Rafael Nadal (90.5%) and Bjorn Borg (86.1%) own better winning percentages on record, so it is 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 just didn’t touch a hard court until I was eight years old, and I just touched it barely, so I was always on clay courts,” Alcaraz said.

“That’s why I got the feeling of playing the clay season and when the clay season is over you have to wait almost one year to play again. So it’s a really long period of time, at least for me,” he said.

Alcaraz, who is also in the middle of a battle for World No. 1 in the ATP Rankings with Jannik Sinner, will face former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka or Sebastian Baez in the second round.

–IANS

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