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Carlos Alcaraz hits out at ‘crazy’ court speed after Paris Masters exit


Carlos Alcaraz has spoken about how he has found it difficult to adapt to the quick conditions in Paris this year, after losing to Ugo Humbert in the third round.

Alcaraz was beaten by the French No.1, 1-6 6-3 5-7, to continue his relatively poor record at the final Masters 1000 tournament of the year.

However, it seems that Alcaraz is associating his early exit more with the speed of the courts this year in the French capital, “I mean, it is very difficult to play in these conditions. 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 get rhythm into the match, he plays probably, every time at his 100%, really flat. So I couldn’t play good tennis. I practice at home but it isn’t the same court that I thought. So I didn’t surprise about my level, about my game, but I was surprised about everything a little bit.”

This is the final time that this tournament will be held in Paris-Bercy, with the event set to move to the Paris La Defense Arena next year.

And the final event in the Accor Arena has certainly caused some conversation, being labelled as the fastest court on the ATP Tour this year

Alcaraz is yet to win an indoor hard court title, but believes that he can do so on slower conditions than in Paris this year.

“This court. I mean, I don’t want to say something that there is going to sounds an excuse. You know, first of all, Ugo deserves to win, that’s obvious,” explained the World No.2. “But it’s depend. Because I play, for example, the Davis Cup indoor court, and the court was way slower than this one.”

The four-time major winner continued, “So, I mean, when I play the first match, you know, 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 and the fastest one, you know, 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, you know, comparing to other years. So it surprise me a little bit, so I came here with not too many days. Probably I had to came, you know, 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.”

Alcaraz will now have a week away from the matchcourt, before returning at the ATP Finals in Turin, concluding his season at the Davis Cup Finals alongside the retiring Rafael Nadal.

Inside the baseline…

There has certainly been a lot of talk about the court speed in Paris this year, which has been compared to Cincinnati a couple of months back, where Carlos Alcaraz also lost early to a Frenchman. However, having differing court speeds is not necessarily a bad thing and creates a bit of difference throughout a long season, rather than getting repetitive. Instead, there should probably be more focus on regulating the balls, as the frequent changes have actually been linked with increased wrist and elbow injuries.

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Matthew Johns, Tennishead Writer, is a professional tennis journalist with a specialist degree in Sports Journalism. He's a keen tennis player having represented his local club and University plus he's also a qualified tennis coach. Matthew has a deep knowledge of tennis especially the ATP Tour and thrives on breaking big tennis news stories for Tennishead.