THE MODERATOR: Carlitos, welcome back to Shanghai. Well done in Tokyo. How excited are you to see your Chinese fans again in this tournament?
CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, it is exciting. It's been a long time, two years, actually, that I didn't come here to Shanghai. I just love the warm welcome they made for me during the practicing today. It was a pleasure to see them again. I'm just excited and happy to be back here in the Shanghai Masters.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?
Q. You've spent four or five visits now to China. Can you talk about what you like about the country, the tournaments, and also the fans who are so passionate?
CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, the fans are super passionate about, I would say, any sports, which I think is great for the community.
Yeah, I just love every time that I come here, because I think they appreciate good tennis, the matches, every time that you just walk around, I think it's great. Yeah, the people are super into it. As I said, it's a great swing, I love being here.
Obviously it is at the end of the season, sometimes the players might come here a little bit tired, mentally, physically. But thanks to the people and thanks to the fans, I think they push us up to have a good energy on the matches and on the practices, which is great.
As I said, I'm just happy that I just was able to come here this year.
Q. We come to the end of the season. I'm wondering how big for your career goals is ATP Finals and Davis Cup would be. You spoke very often about how important it is for you representing Spain. Hopefully, the 29th November you will play the final in Davis Cup the same day of the election in Spain, a country that is facing some housing problem. As a representative of your country, I'm wondering also, traveling all the year, how can you stay connected to what's happening in your country. And, for example, winning Davis Cup, what could it mean for you and for the country?
CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, yeah, tennis can be, I'm going to say, lonely, sometimes, because, I mean, it's an individual sport, you play for your own, you know, the most of the time.
Having the Davis Cup to represent your country, I think it's great. For me, I'm really grateful for being Spanish, and representing my flag is one of the best things that I can do right now.
Yeah, as I said many times, the Davis Cup is always one of my main and most important goals every season. I'm excited about going there and playing.
But right now I just want to play the best that I can this tournament, just to be well prepared mentally and physically to be in a good state for that tournament.
Obviously, I still live there, you know, at home, and for me it's really important to know what is happening, what's going on, to decide a little bit what's going to be the future of my country.
The election can be, you know, the final of the Davis Cup, but we, I would say, every Spanish player knows what's happening in our country right now. Sometimes it can be difficult to find, you know, every news to know about it, but I'm trying every time that I go outside or I'm traveling.
Q. What you have done after coming back is amazing. I would like to ask you about another one coming back. A good friend of yours, Holger Rune, is back after 11 months. He told me he spoke to you in Tokyo. What do you make of him coming back and, you know, the weeks and months he's going through right now, you know, losing to players he's not normally losing to.
CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, obviously it's a slow process. The injury he had, it's a really complicated one because, you know, I would say the movement in tennis, I would say it's almost everything. I think his style is about the movement, to move well on court and cover the court as much as he can.
Yeah, he might lose some matches right now, but personally I'm really happy to see him back on court. I think, you know, I practiced, he came to Murcia to practice with me one week. Then I was seeing him playing good. It is about to get into matches, to get into the rhythm of competition, which is really, really important.
As I said, I wish him all the best. I'm happy that he came back on tour. He has to be patient because it's going to be a slow process, but he's going to get to the point he wants to get.
Q. Missing several months of the season earlier in the year, your body is probably fresher this time of the year than normal. Do you think that gives you an edge going into the last couple of months of the season, and hopefully a big result here in Shanghai?
CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, yeah, I wouldn't say my body, because, you know, after being such a long time without competition, when I just start going back to the tour, playing matches, really demanding physically matches, it feels like the body is not used to it, and it might cause a little bit of minor problems. For us it's really normal to feel that.
But I'm feeling fresh mentally, which for me it's the most important thing. I'm ready to take the challenge of this tournament. If we see a couple years back, you know, probably this swing or this part of the season, it's never been my best one. So, right now I just want to be in a good state for this tournament, because I really want to win the tournaments, this one and the tournaments that I have in a couple months at least one day. So right now I think it's an extra boost that I have for the rest of the season.
Q. The first half of the year you win Australian Open, and then Jannik basically win every Masters. And then things change very fast. Like, Sascha, he wins two Grand Slams. Do you feel surprised like how things can change so fast?
CARLOS ALCARAZ: Not at all. I know tennis, it's, let's say, a roller coaster. A player can start the year really, really well, winning two, three, four tournaments, whatever it is. Then it might change to another player who, in the clay season, even the grass, can dominate the tour and winning every tournament. And then, you know, for the USA can change everything.
A year can be really long. We play a lot of matches. We play a lot of tournaments. We have a lot of time sometimes to adapt our games the best we can for the rest of the season.
So, I know that tennis, you have to be ready and focused every tournament, every week you have on practices just to be better, because the other players are practicing maybe harder than you to catch you up.
That's the beauty of tennis, I would say, to have a lot of players, you know, like fighting for the same thing and, you know, having the ranking move all around. So, I'm not surprised at all.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports