Carlos Alcaraz ‘tired of being targeted’ as Spaniard forced to accept harsh reality | Tennis | Sport

Carlos Alcaraz says he’s “tired” of having a “target on his back” after losing to a red-hot Daniil Medvedev in Indian Wells. The world No. 1 has been in incredible form and started the season on a 16-match winning streak before he was ousted in the semi-finals of the first Masters 1000 event of the year. Medvedev saved set points in the second set to clinch a 6-3 7-6(3) victory, handing Alcaraz his first loss of 2026.

But it wasn’t the first time Alcaraz had been tested. The Spanish superstar dropped a set to Arthur Rinderknech earlier in the tournament, and joked that he was sick of “facing Roger Federer”, joking about his opponents’ high level whenever they faced him. But Alcaraz wasn’t laughing about that after losing to Medvedev.

While Alcaraz didn’t feel any extra pressure from the weight of his unbeaten run this season, the world No. 1 explained that he struggled to deal with everyone bringing their A-game against him.

“I’m not thinking about [the winning streak] at all. I said it when I played against Rinderknech, for example, that what I’m just getting tired a little bit is to get that target on my back all the time. As I said, I have never seen Daniil playing like this before,” Alcaraz said after losing in Saturday’s semi-final.

“But I have to accept it. I have to accept it, keep it going. But after everything, as I said, I just realised what I had to do and what I have to think before every match and before every tournament, and it is just playing for me, playing for my team, and for my close people. I’m not thinking about I need to win or I have to win. It’s just about chasing my goals, chasing what I just set up before every tournament. That’s my mindset, so I’m not getting tired about the people thinking I have to win every match.”

Alcaraz and his biggest rival, Jannik Sinner, have long been the guys to beat on the ATP Tour. But the seven-time Grand Slam champion has really started to feel that target in recent months and is still adjusting to his new reality.

“Well, I mean, I’m just a little bit disappointed right now, but at the same time, I have to see the good things about this loss. It is about the people and the players think that they need to play like this level if they want to beat me. So at some point, it’s going to my favour in some ways,” he explained.

“But obviously, I have been playing great tennis. And, you know, I just show the players and show the people that if they want to beat me, they have to play at his best level [for] one hour and a half, two hours in every match. So I feel good that way, but at the same time, when they play, like, at this level, it feels not that good! You know, I just have to accept it and keep it going, and from now on know that all the people are going to play like this, and I have to be ready for that.

“I feel it a little bit, but obviously since I had such a great run from the clay season and the beginning of this year, I just started to feel it a little bit more.”

Alcaraz will now head to the Miami Open, which was arguably the turning point of his 2025 season. Last year, he lost his opening match to David Goffin, later admitting that defeat left him in tears. From then on, he went on an incredible run for the rest of the season and made at least the finals of 10 of the last 11 events of the year, winning seven of them. The outlier was the Paris Masters, where he also lost his opening match.