Wimbledon, England – Carlos Alcaraz must do something he has never been forced to do before. He has to find a way to overcome his losses in the Grand Slam final.
Alcaraz was 5-0 in the majors’ title match until Sunday, when his reign at Wimbledon ended with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 loss to first Janique Thinner.
“It’s always a bad feeling and you lose a game,” said second-placed Alcaraz. “When you lose in the final, that’s even worse.”
The truth is that he is not used to coming out at the wrong end of the score.
Alcaraz won 20 consecutive matches at the All England Club, winning Novak Jjokovic in the 2023 and 2024 championships.
He came on Sunday this season for a 24-game unbeaten career.
And he played five consecutive matches with Sinner, including the epic five set final at the French Open five weeks ago.
“I just want to keep the good moments and forget the bad moments,” Alcaraz said Sunday. “I just want to think about it, ‘Okay, I’m going to try and forget about the final in the Grand Slam and I lost it.”
He started off well on centre court, collecting the opening set with epic plays from 4-ALL, including a 140 mph ace holding 5-4, and a winner of a cross-court backhand that would break in the next game.
However, as the match progressed, his ability to reach thinner serves declined. In the final three sets, Alcaraz only accumulated three breakpoints and converted zeros. Another problem was that Alkaraz’s serving was quick, but there were some unevenness.
Yes, there were 15 aces, but there were also seven double faults. His first service percentage was only 53%. He broke at least once per set, a total of five times.
One particular issue was his second serve as the sinner came back to these late offerings.
This left Alcaraz defensively too often.
“Today was complicated,” Alcaraz said. The sinner believes he is “arguably one of the best returnees on the tour.”
“So it was difficult to provide better service with nerves and everything,” Alkaraz said. “We definitely need to improve that.”
He also admitted that if he has a dip of form it was caused by a sinner more than any kind of fatigue.
“He was pushing me to the limits at every point, so mentally, sometimes, it’s really hard to maintain a good focus and a good level throughout the game, with the opponent playing such great tennis,” Alcaraz said. “At one point I didn’t know what I had to do in the game because from the baseline he felt he was better than me and couldn’t do anything about it.”