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Carlos Alcaraz Criticizes "Crazy" Court in Rolex Paris Masters

Carlos Alcaraz criticized the court after losing to Ugo Humbert in the Rolex Paris Masters.

Pat Benson

Carlos Alcaraz questioned the court surface after losing to Ugo Humbert in the Rolex Paris Masters.
Carlos Alcaraz questioned the court surface after losing to Ugo Humbert in the Rolex Paris Masters. / Susan Mullane-Imagn Images

ATP World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz entered the 2024 Rolex Paris Masters. Not only did Alcaraz start off with what many fans perceived as the easiest path to victory, but the top-ranked Jannik Sinner pulled out of the tournament at the last moment.

However, there have been no shortages of surprises and upsets in Bercy this week. On Thursday, Alcaraz became the latest superstar to go down early. World No. 18 Ugo Humbert defeated Alcaraz in three sets.

As always, Alcaraz was gracious in defeat. The four-time Grand Slam champion congratulated his opponent and accepted fault for the loss. But he also pointed fingers about the fast-paced court.

Alcaraz prefaced his reasoning by saying, "This court… I mean, I don't want to say something that there is going to sound like an excuse."

"First of all, Ugo deserves to win, that's obvious, but it depends. Because I play, for example, the Davis Cup indoor court, and the court was way slower than this one," said Alcaraz.

It was more than anecdotal; Alcaraz had already analyzed the statistics about the court. "When I played the first match, the stats came out that it is the fastest court in the Masters 1000, probably on the tour right now. This is crazy. I don't know. Probably and the fastest one, you know, in the last ten years in this tournament."

Alcaraz questioned why the tournament organizers made the court so fast. "It surprised me a little bit, so I came here with not too many days. Probably, I had to come earlier to get used to these conditions, but I didn't. But, honestly, all I can say is I don't understand why they did it."

Alcaraz concluded by accepting blame for not arriving in Bercy sooner to have more time to adjust to the court. He also mentioned the court being "very slippery" after his first match against Nicolas Jarry earlier this week.

Tennis reporter José Morón of Punto de Break rang the alarm about the court speeds with a social media post on Tuesday. Morón said, "Since I've been tracking tournament speed measurements for the past 10 years, I've never seen anything like this. The Paris Masters will reach a CPI of 45.5 points in 2024."

He added, "In 10 years, there has not been a tournament as fast as this one. The closest was Shanghai in 2016, with 44.4 points. Overall, the circuit has become faster than in previous years. This is probably to compensate for the slower ball speed. Cincinnati has increased its speed by 25% this year compared to 2023."

Alcaraz will have a little over a week to recalibrate his game for a slightly slower court at the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy. Tennis fans can follow Sports Illustrated's Serve on SI for all the most important news from the sport.

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Pat Benson
PAT BENSON

Pat Benson covers the sneaker industry for Sports Illustrated's FanNation. Previously, he has reported on the NBA, authored "Kobe Bryant's Sneaker History (1996-2020)," and interviewed some of the biggest names in the sports world. You can email him at 1989patbenson@gmail.com.

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