Carlos Alcaraz has been one of the players who has complained about the challenging schedule, which partly contributed to his shock 2024 US Open loss.
The Spaniard stepped out for his second-round match with Botic van de Zandschulp at the Arthur Ashe Stadium, and it wasn't a match he envisioned he would play. Alcaraz produced a bad effort against a really solid opponent who happened to be playing the best match of his season.
The Dutch player arguably even played one of the best matches of his tennis career. It was a brutal match for Alcaraz, who looked disjointed and confused about what he needed to do to turn it around.
He never found out what he needed to do, and he lost the match in straight sets, 1-6, 5-7, 4-6, which was arguably one of the biggest upsets in the history of the US Open.
Alcaraz has handled this matchup easily, making the loss even more surprising. The 21-year-old also likely didn't see this coming, and cameras spotted him laughing on the bench, seemingly in surprise at everything happening.
After the match, he was asked if he felt 100% after the match, but he wasn't interested in that discussion. He didn't seem bothered by any physical issue and deflected the question. Instead, Alcaraz praised his opponent for making things very tough on him.
"I don’t know what to say right now. First of all he played great. He played really good tennis. I thought he would give me more free points. He didn’t make a lot of mistakes I thought he was going to make.. it was confusing a bit. I didn’t know how to manage or deal with it. I couldn’t increase my level."
"I think my level stayed the same the whole match. It wasn’t enough to do it or to give myself the chance to get into the match or try to give myself chances. So what can I say? I didn’t feel well hitting the ball. I made a lot of mistakes. When I wanted to come back it was too late."
Alcaraz did, however, once again, discuss the schedule in his press conference, as he has in the past. The Spaniard was quite open about his stance that the schedule is too challenging for the players, which many players, most notably Iga Swiatek, would agree with.
He confirmed that the long schedule and the number of matches he played recently probably impacted his overall level, which might be true. He rushed to play at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Cincinnati, which some analysts have called into question.
"Probably. Yeah. The tennis schedule is so tight. I’ve been playing a lot of matches lately. With Roland Garros, Wimbledon, Olympics.. I took a little break after Olympics. I thought it was enough."
"It was really helpful for me. Probably it wasn’t enough. I came here without as much energy as I thought I was going to come with."
"But I don’t want to use that as an excuse. But it’s so tight. I’m a player who needs more days or more of a break coming into the big tournaments and important ones. I have to think about it and learn about it. Let’s see."
0 Comments