Top tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou suspects that Carlos Alcaraz may have heaped even more pressure on himself with his strikingly honest comments after being knocked out of the Indian Wells Masters by Jack Draper. Alcaraz admitted he spent the lead-up to the match thinking more about Draper’s game than his own which, he admits, was a ‘big problem’.
“I always say that I have to be focused on myself, on my own game,” said Alcaraz. “I think today I was more worried about his level.” The four-time Grand Slam winner was knocked out by Draper in the semi-finals after a back-and-forth battle, and he followed that up with a first-round Miami Open exit at the hands of David Goffin.
Mouratoglou has since discussed Alcaraz’s comments, and how they may affect him from a psychological perspective. “It was a choice for him to say that,” the 54-year-old, who now coaches Naomi Osaka, told Tennis365.
“I don’t know if it was good or not. If it helps him to take it out of his system to say it, to admit it, why not? Most other players would not say it, that is his choice. We will see how he plays now after he has said this.
“We will see if he feels less pressure now that he has said this, that he admitted his weakness of that moment. Maybe the fact that he verbalised it will put more pressure on him, we’ll see. It is unusual to hear this.”
Mouratoglou recalls Alcaraz’s countryman, Rafael Nadal, speaking in a similar way when he endured tough moments.
He continued: “I don’t know if this is a Spanish thing, but I remember that Rafa had a period in his career when he was losing a lot of matches and he was saying that he kind of lost his mental strength, he admitted it. I was very surprised when he said this, actually, but then he came back to his true self and it shows that even the great players go through doubts at some points.”
Since winning the China Open nearly six months ago, Alcaraz’s only ATP Tour victory came at the Rotterdam Open in early February. He won the French Open and Wimbledon last year, but on current form, other heavyweight contenders will be fancied ahead of him at this season’s remaining Grand Slam tournaments.
It is just under two months until action gets underway at Roland Garros, and then a three-week gap between the French Open final and the start of Wimbledon, before the US Open follows later in the summer.
