American tennis legend Jimmy Connors has urged Carlos Alcaraz to “keep doing your thing” as he believes the 19-year-old has every right to do whatever he wants with his schedule. Alcaraz, ranked at No 2 in the world, missed the start of the 2023 season due to a knee injury.
For his first two tournaments back, Alcaraz elected to play on the clay courts of Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. Since Alcaraz is also scheduled to play on the hard courts of Acapulco this week and in the upcoming Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami, some criticized the Spaniard for his scheduling choices.
But Alcaraz made back-to-back finals in South America and Connors believes the 19-year-old knew what he was doing when he signed up to play in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.
Connors to Alcaraz: No need to give a s— about what some people say
“Why should he (Carlos Alcaraz) even give a s— about what anybody thinks or says? It’s his career, his body, his confidence to come back and get back to where he was before the injuries.
Why should he really care about what anybody thinks or says? It’s all about what’s good for him to get back to where he wants to be to play in these big events coming up. My new line now is, everybody is worrying about what he does, if they worried so much about what they did, there wouldn’t be a problem.
He’s doing what’s best for him to get that confidence going into with Wimbledon, the French (Open), the (Masters) 1000s. So what difference does it make what anybody else says? Go do your own thing and be happy and satisfied with that,” Connors said on the Advantage Connors podcast, per Sportskeeda.
After two deep runs in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, Alcaraz is now set to make his second Acapulco appearance. Alcaraz plays Mackenzie McDonald in the Acapulco first round.
