Carlos Alcaraz has been instructed that he was “hurt” by shedding a good three-set last towards Novak Djokovic on the Cincinnati Open. Since then, the world No 2 has suffered shock early exits in Shanghai and Paris and his struggles carried into the ATP Finals the place he misplaced his opening match to Alexander Zverev. But Alex Corretja believes the 20-year-old can use the season-ending championships to construct a robust basis for the 2024 season after a disappointing few weeks.

Alcaraz’s woes continued on Monday as he misplaced in his debut on the ATP Finals, taking place 6-7(3) 6-3 6-4 to two-time champion Zverev. The Spaniard is now on a three-match shedding streak, crashing out in his opening match on the Paris Masters and shedding within the round-of-16 in Shanghai.

He additionally had some disappointing defeats on the US Open and the ATP 500 in Beijing, shedding on the semi-final stage of each occasions. And one among Alcaraz’s compatriots believes that his marathon Cincinnati Open defeat to Djokovic might be the reason for his latest struggles.

“I think that Cincinnati final against Djokovic where he gave everything he had and ended up losing hurt him a little bit as he gave the biggest effort and he didn't have the reward,” former world No 2 Corretja instructed Eurosport. In that last, Djokovic saved a championship level to beat Alcaraz after three hours and 49 minutes.

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The 36-year-old appeared down and out when he referred to as the physio to have his pulse checked and obtain some medication. But he stormed again from a set all the way down to win 5-7 7-6(7) 7-6(4). While Alcaraz hasn’t been in a position to win a title since shedding the dogfight Cincinnati last, Corretja nonetheless believes that he has had an “incredible” season and might begin placing within the work for 2024.

The 49-year-old continued: “He went and won his first major on hard courts, then the biggest major for him on grass at Wimbledon. He just knocked down every barrier that he faced, and I think mentally he is ready.

“Next year is going to be an amazing year for Alcaraz for sure, and we'll see, because maybe the ATP Finals can give him this extra feeling again of doing something even bigger in 2023.” Corretja gained’t be involved if Alcaraz can’t win the season-ending championships on his debut, nonetheless.

“If that's not the case, his season will be still huge and great,” he added. “If he finishes winning the ATP Finals, of course that would be like a 10 out of 10, perfect season. If not, he might have a 9.5 out of 10 or 9.75 at least, I would say.”

Despite shedding his opening round-robin match to Zverev, the world No 2 can nonetheless make it out of the group stage and into the semi-final relying on his leads to the remainder of the group stage. Alcaraz is within the Red Group alongside Zverev, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev.