Alcaraz recovering after dash to Shanghai

Carlos Alcaraz had no time to celebrate his China Open title win over Jannik Sinner, with the Spaniard catching a red-eye flight with a 4 a.m. arrival in Shanghai for this week’s event.

The 21-year-old spelled out his quick-time sprint from one Chinese megacity to the other as the wacky ATP calendar experiment crushes players.

With Beijing wrapping up on Wednesday with the final, play also began that ame day in Shanghai thanks to what appears to be a cash grab to extend one-week tournaments to nearly a fortnight.

Alcaraz spelled out his hectic dash to Shanghai: “Yesterday we finished at around 9pm after a three-hour match, I didn’t have time to do anything else.

“I went to the club before the match with all my bags, because I knew we would have to leave quickly to catch the flight.

“We arrived at 4am, to get some sleep and adapt to the conditions in Shanghai.”

The Spaniard admitted: “The schedule is very tight, we travel from tournament to tournament, with only one or two days before it starts. It’s complicated, but we have to adapt,” Alcaraz confesses.

“I slept a total of six hours, I couldn’t sleep more. I came to the tournament and I’ll rest a bit, I need it.

“Tomorrow I’ll start training and on Saturday I’ll try to play at my best.”