Carlos Alcaraz is yet to play a full match in the “brutal” Australian Open conditions, but he believes he is well-prepared to handle it, and even feels he has an advantage over Jannik Sinner when it comes to the heat.
According to Tennis 365, temperatures were close to 40 degrees Celsius during Sinner’s fourth-round match against Eliot Spizzirri on Saturday and the defending champion found it tough to deal with the elements as he slipped behind in the match.
After sharing the opening two sets on Rod Laver Arena, world No 85 Spizzirri claimed an early break in the third set and Sinner looked “absolutely cooked” as he battled body cramps and struggled to move.
Sinner also had some treatment during the break and was a different player when the match resumed, as he immediately broke back and went on to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
The Italian admitted he “got lucky” while the likes of Tim Henman felt he “got a lifeline” while there had also been suggestions of favouritism.
World No 1 Alcaraz shared his thoughts on the tough conditions as he dismissed talk of favouritism.
He said, “I saw it. In the end, as I’ve said before, I like to watch Jannik’s matches, I like to see how he’s doing, what’s happening, also thinking about a possible match-up, and obviously I saw the situation with the heat.”
“I trained for about 35 minutes and I could already tell how tough it was; playing a whole match in those conditions is brutal. I don’t know exactly to what extent the rule says whether you can stop in even games, in odd games, or whether that particular game should have been played or not,” the Spaniards added.
The two can only meet in the final of the season-opening Grand Slam, but Alcaraz believes the searing heat could give him the edge over the two-time Australian Open champion.
