The first half of his final sprint was cut short: the world No.2 Carlos Alcaraz fell at the start of the Masters 1000 in Paris against the Russian from qualifying Roman Safiullin (45th), winner 6-3, 6-4 in the second tour Tuesday.
Alcaraz, exempt from the first round, returned to the competition after giving up playing in Basel the previous week, with a sore left foot and back. It now remains for the young Spaniard, who has not lifted a trophy since his epic coronation at Wimbledon at the expense of Novak Djokovic in July, nor reached the final since Cincinnati in August, to honor the last major meeting of the season as best he can. , the Masters which will bring together the eight best players in the world in mid-November in Turin (Italy).
“On a day like this, it’s difficult to turn the page. Losing at the start of a tournament where you hope to reach the final hurts a lot,” admits “Carlitos”. “This is one of the rare times when I don’t want to think about the days to come, training and everything else. »
“If I want to have even the slightest chance…”
“I am disappointed with myself, with my level of play, I definitely expected more from myself. I didn’t feel good on the court, I felt slow, I didn’t move well at all,” he notes. “There are a lot of things to do better if I want to have any chance at the Masters…”
Although he did not speak about it again, Alcaraz admitted on Monday to feeling “still a little discomfort in the sole of his foot”. “It’s not 100% resolved, but (…) it’s much less present than before,” he described. “It’s the end of the season, which has been very long, demanding, it’s normal for problems to appear, we have to deal with them, play as best as possible while managing these problems,” he added.
With his initial defeat, Alcaraz is not doing well in his duel with Djokovic for the throne of world No.1 at the end of the season. The protégé of Juan Carlos Ferrero believes he “lost all chance” after this early defeat, he who “came here with the idea of trying to reach the last rounds to have the opportunity to play for the N.1 place in the last tournament.
Djokovic starts Wednesday
The Serbian with a record 24 Grand Slam trophies, who entered Paris with a 500-point lead in the Race, the ranking established over the calendar year, will play his first match on Wednesday afternoon, against the Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry ( 31st).
The 20-year-old Spaniard had a break in the lead in both rounds on Tuesday evening (2-1 in the first, 3-1 in the second) but each time, visibly lacking in pep, he allowed Safiullin to come back. And the resistance of the 26-year-old Russian, quarter-finalist at Wimbledon in July, ended up getting the better of him.
After his elimination in the semi-finals at the US Open in September, where he had been crowned for the first time in a Grand Slam a year earlier, Alcaraz had already not shone during the Asian tour (semi-finals). finals in Beijing and round of 16 at the Masters 1000 in Shanghai).
Paris has definitely not been successful for him recently, he who left Roland-Garros crippled with cramps in the middle of the semi-final against Djokovic in the spring, and had given up in the quarter-finals at Bercy a year ago, injured in his abdominals.