{"id":97221,"date":"2026-02-02T20:48:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T01:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=97221"},"modified":"2026-02-02T20:48:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T01:48:59","slug":"carlos-alcaraz-hits-back-at-doubters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/02\/02\/carlos-alcaraz-hits-back-at-doubters\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThose Who Didn\u2019t Believe in Me\u201d: Carlos Alcaraz Hits Back at Doubters After Career Grand Slam"},"content":{"rendered":"

After becoming the youngest men\u2019s player to complete the Career Grand Slam<\/a>, Carlos Alcaraz has, arguably for the first time ever, hit back at all the doubters and questioners the Spaniard had heading into the first Major of the year.<\/p>\n

Carlos Alcaraz Fires Back at Critics<\/h2>\n

While Alcaraz was his usual smiling and confident self in most of the media activities following his historic triumph, the World No. 1 did not forget the bulletin-board material he had entering the Australian Open, which for him served as huge motivation.<\/p>\n

In a post-match interview, when asked what came to his mind after winning his first Australian Open title, Alcaraz did not mince words<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo tell you the truth, now I remember the people who said I wasn\u2019t going to make it. Who said I was going to come here and not get past the quarterfinals or not play good tennis. Those who didn\u2019t believe in me. I remember the people who said I\u2019d come here and not make it past the quarterfinals or wouldn\u2019t play good tennis. Those who didn\u2019t believe in me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

While Carlos Alcaraz has been considered a top player on tour for several years now, this reaction appeared to stem from the doubts and questions that were raised about the Spaniard following his shocking split with Juan Carlos Ferrero<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Questions That Followed a Shocking Split<\/h3>\n

Alcaraz ended the 2025 season as the best player in the world<\/a>, yet narratives surrounding him shifted when it was revealed during a crucial off-season that he would be moving in a separate direction from his long-time head coach.<\/p>\n

That perceived instability, especially when it appeared Ferrero wanted to continue coaching the World No. 1<\/a>, caused doubts surrounding Alcaraz heading into a tournament where he had not previously enjoyed his usual level of success. Those concerns were amplified by how well his contemporary, Jannik Sinner, had performed in Melbourne in recent years.<\/p>\n

Now, after lifting the Australian Open title, Alcaraz felt it was the appropriate response to all those questions. The triumph reaffirmed the belief that the Spaniard and his closely knit team know what is best for him in the long term. Something Alcaraz believes, given his track record, should never have been questioned in the first place<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit Syndication: The Enquirer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After becoming the youngest men\u2019s player to complete the Career Grand Slam, Carlos Alcaraz has, arguably for the first time ever, hit back at all the doubters and questioners the Spaniard had heading into the first Major of the year. Carlos Alcaraz Fires Back at Critics While Alcaraz was his usual smiling and confident self […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5608,"featured_media":95935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3,2,9],"tags":[43454,205,5729],"class_list":["post-97221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australian-open","category-atp","category-featured","category-news","tag-2026-australian-open","tag-australian-open","tag-carlos-alcaraz"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5608"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97221"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97278,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97221\/revisions\/97278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}