Exhibitions are meant to promote the sport and take it to new audiences. Organisers want the best players in the world to feature because they will sell more tickets.
Roger Federer played Rafael Nadal in Cape Town in 2020 in front of 51,954 fans – a reported record, external for a tennis crowd at the time, albeit not an official match.
Alcaraz – a gifted, highly entertaining shot-maker – plays a lot of exhibitions.
He faced Americans Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe in New York and North Carolina respectively at the start of the year
Alcaraz and Tiafoe also took part in an event in Puerto Rico, and are scheduled to play alongside Emma Raducanu and Amanda Anisimova in New Jersey in December.
The Spaniard has also been vocal about the strain of the increasingly packed calendar, saying in 2024 they are “going to kill us in some way”.
When asked last year about playing so many exhibitions, Alcaraz said: “I have seen that many people talk about my calendar because I have put many exhibitions [in].
“But you have to separate the calendar and the exhibitions – they are different things.”
Alcaraz’s coach Juan Carlos Ferrero believes, external the style of play at exhibitions – which tend to be about entertainment, rather than winning – helps his charge relax.
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