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Carlos Alcaraz Gives 3 Major Reasons for ATP Finals Loss

Carlos Alcaraz blamed illness, fatigue, and courts for his recent struggles.

Pat Benson

Carlos Alcaraz offered several excuses for his recent struggles.
Carlos Alcaraz offered several excuses for his recent struggles. / Susan Mullane-Imagn Images

Casper Ruud defeated Carlos Alcaraz in a decisive fashion in the first round of the ATP Finals on Monday morning: 6-1, 7-5. It was not the outcome or the level of play fans have come to expect from Alcaraz.

Not only is the World No. 1 on his heels after losing the first set of the round-robin style Group Stage, but he is in the midst of an unusual slump. Alcaraz suffered early exits at the Shanghai Masters and Paris Masters before picking up an early loss in the ATP Finals today.

As always, the 21-year-old handles defeat with class. He says and does the right things and praises his opponent's play. However, he did offer some reasons (not excuses) for his poor play: illness, fatigue, and indoor courts.

When speaking with the media, Alcaraz confirmed what everyone saw during his loss against Ruud. He was very sick and not playing at full strength.

"Well, a few days before coming here, I got sick at home. And yeah, the days that I was practicing here, I was feeling okay. Not pretty good, but okay. I could play. I could feel that I can get into the rallies in the practice," said Alcaraz.

He continued, "Obviously, in the matches it is totally different. But today I didn't feel well. In this morning, I feel uncomfortable in the stomach. After long rallies today, I couldn't feel well. I don't want to, you know, say because I don't want to sound like an excuse. But if I feel bad, I feel bad. It is what happened today."

Of course, every player is drained of energy at this point in the season. Especially the top-ranked players because they have played the most matches and participated in the most media events. Alcaraz acknowledged that every player is tired mentally now.

"Some players deal with it better than others. I'm tired. I'm tired mentally. Obviously, a lot of matches, really tight schedule, really demanding year with not too many days off, not too many periods where you could rest, you could practice at home.

It's kind of like you finish one week or you finish a swing, you only have two or three days off, and then you have to go to other tournaments to other part of the world," said Alcaraz.

He concluded, "Since the beginning of the year you're accumulating hours, days. You come into this part of year tired. As I said many, many times, I think this year I'm much better than last year, but I have to find the way to performance and deliver a good tennis being tired mentally."

When asked why he struggles on indoor courts, Alcaraz said, "I have no experience playing on indoor courts. I could practice a lot on indoor courts, but I don’t have matches in my back on indoor courts. So I don't know. I have to be better on this part of the year that we play on indoor courts."

He added, "I don't know. I'll be a really good player on indoor courts, I'm sure about it. But I think it's about time, about getting experience, getting matches in my back, hitting on indoor courts. I don't feel that I'm a bad player indoors. Probably I'm going to say a lot of players are better than me on indoor court. I don't know. I can't answer as good as I wanted to this question."

While Alcaraz is down, he is not out of the tournament. He faces the winner of two-seed Alexander Zverev and eight-seed Andrey Rublev on Wednesday, November 13.

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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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