Carlos Alcaraz to CNN: ‘I’m playing unbelievable tennis’ in Paris’
Wednesday, May 31, 2013 2:25 PM
Carlos Alcaraz was playing well for the first time here, a tournament that features the two best players in the world. But his serve wasn’t being picked up, the baseline game, which has been his Achilles heel, wasn’t working, and the long rallies that he has been so good at executing weren’t going anywhere.
(John Harball/Allsport News)
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“On the first point of the third set, my serve would go inside the zone and I just didn’t have a good response to it,” said Alcaraz, an 18-year-old from Venezuela, the number one junior in the world. “I think my serve was one of the most important parts of my game. In the last two days, I played well. I played good tennis. Maybe I played something good in a set. When I played in Madrid and Stuttgart, I played well. I played well in the French Open. When I played in Miami and Toronto, I played well, too. It was great. I played well at both events.”
What was going on in Paris?
Alcaraz came into a three-set match needing to win his opening service game to stay in the match. In the first set, he had a 6-2 lead in the third game. Then he was serving out the match.
“The first set was a little bit like a match against the top players. A very long match, it’s a long match for me. I had to win the first set and then, if I won the first set, I could win the match,” he said. “I was thinking about the first point. Then my serve went outside the zone and I didn’t have a good response. Once it went outside the zone, and I serve to my backhand. When I played, I played a lot of tennis and I played well. And I don’t think I was too disappointed because I was playing very well. But I think that maybe I played something that I didn’t expect, because I was making some errors. I lost my serve, but