The world No. 1 delivered two superb performances on the final day of action, teaming up with Casper Ruud to deliver a much-needed doubles victory against Alex Michelsen and Reilly Opelka 7-6(4) 6-1, before beating Francisco Cerundolo 6-2 6-1 in the singles.
“(Saturday) night was tough, it was a tough night and a tough day in general with the losses,” Alcaraz explained in the press conference.
“Normally when you lose in a tournament, you are out of the tournament, but here, you have another chance to be better, another chance to help the team with the points.”
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Alcaraz did everything he could to keep the team in contention going into that final match, opting to play doubles and singles on the same day, having played doubles on Friday and singles on Saturday.
“I had to be ready, I had to forget that I lost (the previous) night, take everything that I did good from the match, and take the things I did wrong last night and be better,” Alcaraz explained.
“And when I came back I played great tennis in the doubles and the singles. If I was tired, I was ready.
“There was a discussion with the team who is going to play the doubles, but I was there and ready to play the doubles.”
Against Fritz, Alcaraz was on the defensive from the word ‘go’, and while he got plenty of balls back in play, he could not make as many inroads into the American’s booming serve.
Fritz handed Alcaraz just his fifth loss of the year on hard courts, and first since Miami back in March.
“When you are defending, when you are running on the court, it is really difficult to turn around the situations,” Alcaraz had explained in the wake of that defeat.
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“It is really difficult when you are defending, turning to attack is really difficult because of the balls and the conditions that are really slow.
“As I said, Taylor was right. He was more aggressive than me. He did much better the first shots than me, and I was running more than him. I think that was the key.”
Fritz’s victory was his first over Alcaraz, who beat him in last year’s edition of the Laver Cup, and still leads their head-to-head 3-1.
“I think the ranking is just a number. It shouldn’t give you the pressure that you have to win everything and every match,” he concluded.
“It’s just, okay, I’m there, but you still have to do the things that you were doing before.”
