Carlos Alcaraz speaks with CNN after US Open win
Carlos Alcaraz spoke with CNN after his second win at the US Open.
(CNN) — Carlos Alcaraz says he was nervous heading into his first major title match in a decade, but after he survived a match against former No. 1 James Blake and defeated the four-time major winner, Andy Murray, in five sets as time ran down, he said he was happy.
The former player from Cuba and his Argentine partner Guillermo Garcia-Llorca survived a tiring day on Monday night at the US Open, rallying from a 3-1 hole early on with a 7-5 victory over former No. 1 James Blake.
The win put him in an exclusive group of players who have won the men’s major championship, with Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, and he now becomes the first Spaniard to claim a major title.
“I think it’s an incredible opportunity. It’s for me to keep my record of playing the biggest events in the world, to keep the name of my country, my country is going to be proud of me,” Alcaraz told CNN after his victory.
“It’s a special event, the world’s most famous trophy, in which is a team of people who have done something, something very difficult,” he added.
But Alcaraz is also aware that the win came with only two weeks remaining in the season. This is the third time he has reached the semifinals of the men’s major, coming in Miami in 2003 and Rome in 2010, but the first time two of the eight players who have qualified for the United States Open have had their hopes for winning the men’s title upended in the semis.
A world class tennis player from Cuba who won the most important title of his career in 1997, Alcaraz has reached the semifinals in 16 of his 24 matches ever since his
