Alcaraz faults difficult conditions, fast court for shock defeat in Paris

World No.2 Carlos Alcaraz came out to blamed the harsh conditions and fast courts for this third round exist at the Rolex Paris Masters 1000 on Thursday night.

The 21-year-old Spaniard who was the top seed going into Paris after Jannik Sinner’s early withdrawal, lost to home favourite Ugo Humbert 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 in the round of 16.

While briefing the press after the upset of Humbert, Carlos Alcaraz said the conditions at the Paris Masters are really difficult for him, insisting he doesn’t understand why they’ve made the court so much faster.

“Well, not really. I mean, it is very difficult to play in these conditions,” The Spanish No.1 said.

“For me, for my level, I try to change up as much as I can to this court, to this speed. I thought that it suits pretty well to my game, but it doesn’t.

“When I play against someone like Ugo that he doesn’t let you, you know, get rhythm into the match, he plays probably, every time at his 100%, really flat. So I couldn’t play a good tennis.

“You know, I practice at home but it isn’t the same… So I’m not surprised about my level, about my game, but I’m surprised about everything a little bit.”

Alcaraz, who prior to the game had only lost two deciding sets the whole season, gave credit to Ugo Humbert staying the Frenchman deserved the win the encounter when asked about the court conditions.

“Well, not indoor courts. This court. I mean, I don’t want to say something that there is going to sound like an excuse. You know, 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”, He said.

“So, I mean, 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 the fastest one in the last ten years in this tournament.

“So I don’t know why they do it. I don’t know why they have changed a lot, you know, a court from other tournaments and obviously in the same tournament, comparing to other years,” Alcaraz told the Paris Masters Press.

“So 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, you know, honestly all I can say is I don’t understand why they did it.” He concluded.

Carlos Alcaraz lost out to the year-end ATP World no.2 spot to Jannik Sinner but still has the opportunity to finish the season strongly at the ATP finals in Turin later this month.