“The Spanish Magician is my favorite” - Serena Williams’ ex-coach Rick Macci picks Carlos Alcaraz to win US Open 2024 after Paris Olympics heartbreak

Serena Williams' ex-coach Rick Macci has picked Carlos Alcaraz as the favorite to win the 2024 US Open. The American feels the Spaniard's heartbreaking defeat at the Paris Olympics will only make him stronger and more determined to raise the bar.

After a slow start to the season, Alcaraz has made a tremendous turnaround to the year, winning three big titles, all on different surfaces. He defended his title at the Indian Wells Masters, following which he won the French Open to complete the Surface Slam. He then defended his Wimbledon titles successfully to complete the Channel Slam and win the fourth Grand Slam of his career.

Alcaraz was heavily favored to clinch gold at the Paris Olympics due to his scintillating form and the fact that the event was held at Roland Garros, where the 21-year-old won the French Major.

It looked as if Alcaraz was going to clinch the top podium position. However, Novak Djokovic's stunning performance in the final helped the Serb win gold 7-6(3), 7-6(2) in nearly three hours.

Serena Williams' ex-coach Rick Macci, who also coached Venus, Andy Roddick, Jennifer Capriati, and Maria Sharapova recently took to X (formerly Twitter) to opine that Carlos Alcaraz was the favorite to win it all at the Flushing Meadows. He felt that Alcaraz's loss to Djokovic at the Olympics would add another layer of fiber and grit to him making the Spaniard more determined.

"The Spanish Magician is my favorite to win the U.S. OPEN. The Gold Medal loss will add another layer of Fiber and Grit with even more baked in Determination and never say Quit. @carlosalcaraz," Macci tweeted.

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"Being No.1 is a goal every time" - Carlos Alcaraz reveals one of his main goals for latter part of the 2024 season

Carlos Alcaraz (Image Source: Getty)

Ahead of his campaign at the Cincinnati Open, Carlos Alcaraz revealed that his goal was to finish the year as the World No. 1. However, he admitted that he was behind in the race to the top. (Alcaraz is currently ranked third behind Jannik SInner and Novak Djokovic).

Alcaraz added that he was focused on playing his best tennis at every tournament and getting better results to become World No. 1 again.

“Obviously, being No. 1 is a goal every time I’m [behind] and the race is an important ranking for me. At the end of the year, if you finish the career No. 1, in the rankings [it’s] pretty close, so you’re going to finish No. 1,” Alcaraz said in a conversation with ATP.

“So I’m very focused on that. I’m focused on going into every tournament, thinking about playing great tennis, doing a good result just to get better in the career, and this year, finishing the year No. 1 is one of my main goals right now. So I’m looking forward to doing it and we’ll see.”

Carlos Alcaraz became the youngest man (19 years old) to become the World No. 1 in 2022 after he won the US Open that year.

The Spaniard, seeded third, will kick off his Cincinnati Masters campaign against the winner of the match between Gael Monfils and Alexei Popyrin.