TURIN, Italy (Reuters) -Carlos Alcaraz is bidding to win his first ATP Finals title and is also in line for the year-end world number one spot, but during a hard-fought win over Taylor Fritz on Tuesday that battle was the last thing on the Spaniard's mind.
Alcaraz came through a thrilling three-setter to overcome American Fritz 6-7(2) 7-5 6-3 to leave him one win away from securing top spot in the world rankings for 2025 ahead of Italian Jannik Sinner.
While that fight with Sinner is never far from the Spaniard's thoughts, Fritz putting him to the sword gave Alcaraz enough to worry about.
"At the beginning I'm trying not to think about it, to be honest, but it's really difficult not to think about the number one spot," Alcaraz said.
"At the start of the match I thought a little bit about it. During the match there were a lot of things to think about. The thought about number one was gone."
After Fritz won the opening set on the tiebreak, Alcaraz was also in difficulty in the second set before coming through with his second win of the season-ending championships.
"In my mind I was thinking about how can I turn around the match because I had really difficult moments. I wasn't playing that good, I guess," Alcaraz said.
"I thought about finding a way just to try to come back or to win the match. The number one thoughts, I didn't think about it at all during the match. I was just trying to get the win, how it is possible."
A victory for Alex de Minaur over Lorenzo Musetti in the other Jimmy Connors Group match later on Tuesday would secure Alcaraz's place in the semi-finals in Turin.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes; Editing by Ken Ferris)
