Carlos Alcaraz’s season is done but the tennis star’s year isn’t

Carlos Alcaraz recently wrapped up his 2025 official schedule with the ATP’s year-end No. 1 ranking, tour-highs of 71 match wins and eight trophies and a pair of Grand Slam titles that lifted his career total to six.

Yes, his season is done — but his year isn’t. That’s because the 22-year-old Alcaraz, who skipped representing Spain in last week’s Davis Cup Final 8 because of pain in his right hamstring, is signed up for a pair of upcoming exhibition events that include singles matches against two-time U.S. Open semifinalist Frances Tiafoe in Newark, New Jersey, on Dec. 7, and against João Fonseca, a 19-year-old Brazilian ranked 24th, in Miami on Dec. 8.

Alcaraz is one of many tennis players critical of his sport’s calendar, saying it runs too long, asks too much of the athletes and provides too short of an offseason.

Does he get why some fans might wonder why he would add these unofficial outings?

“First of all, it’s normal that people think that way and they don’t understand why we’re complaining about the calendar and then we set up the exhibition matches,” Alcaraz told The Associated Press. “But for me, the main difference is that, at a tournament, you’ve got to keep your focus and it’s really physically and mentally demanding for one week and a half. And an exhibition is just one day. You just stay focused, just warm up, just practice not that much — for one match.”

It boils down, he said, to the external and internal pressure that come with the week-in, week-out grind — for victories, for rankings points, for hardware — that adds up over the season.

Those sorts of things are absent when Alcaraz swings his racket somewhere other than the All England Club or Roland-Garros, and instead at the homes of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, say, or Major League Baseball’s Miami Marlins, two sites that never previously hosted professional tennis.

Ross Hutchins, who oversees the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup as the new CEO of the International Tennis Federation, thinks that kind of exposure is good for the game.

“We have cities, governments, locations, individuals, entrepreneurs, federations that just want more tennis. Everyone wants more tennis, and the sport is growing and growing and growing with its appeal. So we’re in a fortunate situation at the moment,” Hutchins said.

“It’s difficult to say it’s bad for players to play in a new location,” he added, “and it’s difficult to criticize the players for doing so because of the dynamics that they’re in” as independent contractors who “never know when your form is going to drop or what injury might hit.”

At the Prudential Center, in addition to Alcaraz vs. Tiafoe, there will be a singles match between 2024 U.S. Open runner-up Jessica Pegula and 2025 Wimbledon and U.S. Open runner-up Amanda Anisimova, plus some mixed doubles.

At loanDepot Park the following night, Alcaraz vs. Fonseca will be accompanied by another matchup between Pegula and Anisimova, along with a mixed doubles 10-point tiebreaker.

“You could approach the exhibitions in different ways. You can (do it) just to have fun, playing good tennis, good shots and having fun. Or you can approach them playing really serious and (using) tactics and trying different things you will want to do later, in an event,” Alcaraz said. “So for these matches, I’m going to play well, I’m going to take it really seriously, but at the same time, I’m going to try to have as much fun as I can. To me, that’s what matters. When I’m having fun on court, I can show my best tennis.”

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis