Carlos Alcaraz said that the presence of Donald Trump at the US Open -Final “will be great for tennis”, while the US president is preparing for his first match at Flushing Meadows in a decade.
The 22-year-old Spaniard reached Sunday’s final by beating Novak Djokovic in straight sets on Friday afternoon in Arthur Ashe Stadium. He will be confronted with title defender Jannik Sinner of Canada’s Félix Auger-Aliassy for a sixth Grand Slam title and a third in New York.
When asked about the confirmed presence of Trump, Alcaraz said it was a privilege to perform for the president.
“I think it’s a privilege for the tournaments that the president of every country to support the tournament, support tennis and support the competition,” he said. “For me, play for him … I will not try to think about it. I don’t want me to be nervous because of it, but I think it is to attend the tennis match, it’s great for tennis to have the president at the final.”
The tennis club of the United States said on Friday that Trump would be a guest in a business suite within Ashe.
Trump was once a competition in the crowd before launching his political career. The Trump organization even maintained a suite in addition to the temporary employment cabin, but gave up in 2017 during his first year in the White House.
The president has made a series of high -profile sporting performances this year. He attended the Super Bowl in New Orleans, the Daytona 500 in Florida, UFC maps in Miami and Newark, the NCAA Wrestling Championships in Philadelphia and the FIFA Club World Cup final of July in New Jersey, through which the newspaper heads made Crashing trophy -ceremony of Chelsea.
While Barack and Michelle Obama appeared on the opening evening in 2023, the return of Trump on Sunday will mark the first by a sitting president in 25 years, when Bill Clinton took the ladies’ finale in 2000.
Alcaraz insisted that he would not let the political spotlights distracted. “I will try not to be focused, and I’ll try not to think about it,” he said. “I don’t want me to be nervous because of that.”
Alcaraz, who won the open for the first time as a teenager in 2022, became the first man to reach the final of the US Open Men without dropping a set since Roger Federer in 2015. He said on Friday that even the presence of Trump, which will make the game bear the political theater unusual, even for New York’s Grand Slam.
“It’s great for tennis,” said Alcaraz. “But on Sunday it is my job to play my best tennis and leave nothing in the way.”
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