Tennis coach
Patrick Mouratoglou believes that Spain’s Carlos
Alcaraz’s words after losing at the
Miami Open can come back to haunt him. The 21-year-old,
who is already regarded as one of the best players currently playing in men’s
tennis in the singles category, has been going through a difficult on the court.
He was recently featured in the Miami Open, where he was knocked out
after losing in the round of 64 to David Goffin with a score of 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
After that match, Alcaraz commented that he lost because he focused on
his opponent.
“I always say that I have to be focused on myself, on my own
game,” Alcaraz said. “I think today I was more worried about his level, his
game, than myself… So when you’re thinking more about the opponent than
yourself, then it is a big problem. So that’s what happened. Since the
beginning of the day, since the morning, I was thinking about his game, because
he’s really tough, he’s really solid, and it’s going to be a really physical
match.”
Mouratoglou has recently spoken to Tennis 365 where he
stated that Alcaraz’s words are ‘unusual’ and that those words might come back
to haunt them. “It was a choice for him to say that. I don’t know if it was
good or not,” said Mouratoglou. “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. 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.”