Tennis - US Open 2024 - Carlos Alcaraz stunned by Botic Van de Zandschulp : "Mentally, I'm not well, not strong"
Carlos Alcaraz semblait armé pour s'approcher d'un triplé historique Roland-Garros - Wimbledon - US Open. Pourtant, ce jeudi soir, l'Espagnol a été rattrapé par une dure réalité dès le deuxième tour à New-York contre le Néerlandais Botic Van de Zandschulp. De manière surprenante, "Carlitos" a été dépassé et même surclassé par son adversaire avant de logiquement s'incliner 6-1, 7-5, 6-4. Strappée à la cuisse, Alcaraz a tenté de se battre toute la partie sans jamais prendre vraiment le dessus sur son adversaire. Un échec que personne n'avait vu venir, en particulier les Espagnols. Ces derniers n'auront aucun représentant au troisième tour d'un Grand Chelem pour la première fois au 21e siècle. En conférence de presse, le numéro 3 mondial n'a pas caché sa déception.
Vidéo : @USOpen
Vidéo : @USOpen
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00I don't know what to say right now. I mean, first of all, I think he played great. He
00:10played really good tennis. I thought he was going to give me more points. I'm going to
00:17say more free points, you know. So he didn't make a lot of mistakes that I thought he was
00:25going to do. So I was, you know, confusing a little bit and I didn't know how to manage
00:32that, how to deal with it. I couldn't, you know, increase my level. I think my level
00:43stayed at the same point all the match and it wasn't enough to win the match or to give
00:51myself the chance to get into the match or trying to give myself chances. So, you know,
01:03what can I say? I didn't feel well hitting the ball. I think I made a lot of mistakes
01:10and when I wanted to come back, or I think I wanted to come back, it was too late.
01:21Probably. Yeah, I mean, the tennis schedule is so tight. I mean, I've been playing a lot
01:41of matches lately, you know, with Roland Garros, with Wimbledon, Olympics games. I took a little
01:49break after the Olympics game. I thought it was enough. It was really helpful for me.
01:55Probably it wasn't enough. But yeah, probably I came here with not as much energy as I thought
02:06that I was going to come. But I mean, I don't want to put that as an excuse. But yeah, it's
02:20so tight. Probably I'm a guy or I'm a player who needs more days or more break coming into the
02:28good tournaments or the important ones. So I have to think about it and I have to learn about it.
02:34That's it.
02:36Carlos, what were your emotions like during the match and what are you feeling right now?
02:42It was a fight against myself, you know, in my mind during the match. In tennis you're
02:50playing against someone that wants the same as you, to win the match. You have to be as calm as
02:57you can just to think better in the match and try to do good things. Today I was playing against
03:10the opponent and I was playing against myself, you know, in my mind. So I mean, a lot of emotions
03:17that I couldn't control. It was kind of, I mean, it was up in some points, then I lose some points,
03:27I get down. It was a roller coaster, let's say, in my mind. So it can be like that if I want to
03:36think about big things. So I have to improve it. I have to learn about it.
03:42Two more in English. Tamani and then Simon.
03:44You said that you weren't sure what to do in the match. Have you ever felt like that much,
03:51like on the court before?
03:53Well, a few matches that I've felt like that. And, you know, after every match that I felt like that,
04:05I always said the same. I was said to learn about it. I have to think about it. And
04:12if I'm feeling or I'm thinking right now that I'm not changing, that's the problem.
04:19If I'm going to sit here after the matches that I'm going to feel or I felt like that,
04:26that I couldn't deal with it, I couldn't change the match or I couldn't push me up a little bit
04:35and say that. So I had to think about it. I had to learn about it. And I'm going to never change.
04:40It's going to be really tough if I want to improve. So I can't say much about it.
04:49Winning the silver medal was a big achievement,
04:51but do you think coming so close to the gold medal had an effect on you mentally coming here?
04:57Not really. I didn't think about it too much. I mean, as I said, being so close
05:04to the gold medal, it was difficult for me the few moments or the, you know, one hour or 15
05:17minutes later of the match. But once I realised what I've achieved, it was the silver medal. It
05:25was a great achievement. I was really proud about it. And after the moment that I realised that I
05:30got the silver medal and it was a great achievement, I didn't think about it anymore.
05:35So I'm going to say it didn't affect me at all.