Paul Annacone, former coach of Roger Federer and present coach of Taylor Fritz, analyzed why Carlos Alcaraz suffered the defeat within the Paris Olympic remaining towards Novak Djokovic. The tears shed by the younger Spaniard after the match towards the Serbian champion give a transparent picture of what was the divide of the season of the 4-time Slam champion. Profitable the gold medal was a purpose that Alcaraz would have appreciated to attain already in Paris.
Carlitos had a fairly up and down second a part of the season. After successful the French Open and Wimbledon Championships and taking the silver medal on the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games, the Spaniard suffered a painful defeat on the Cincinnati Open towards Gael Monfils and a fair harder one within the second spherical on the US Open towards Botic van de Zandschulp.
Then got here the victories on the Laver Cup and on the China Open in Beijing, the place he defeated Jannik Sinner within the remaining. In Shanghai and Paris-Bercy, nevertheless, Alcaraz disillusioned expectations, saying goodbye to the tournaments within the quarterfinals and the spherical of 16 respectively. Lastly, on the Nitto ATP Finals, he failed to interrupt away and attain the semifinals.
“Carlos is a player full of joy. I think he lost a bit of it this year for many reasons. The defeat in the final at Paris 2024 broke his heart a bit and left its mark on the rest of the season,” defined Annacone in an interview with the Tennis Channel’s Inside In podcast.
“He has an incredible mentality and a fantastic team, so there’s no reason why it’s not just a little turbulence along the way. It’s just a blip,” he added.
Annacone known as Carlitos’ loss to Nole the turning level within the Spaniard’s season, as he hasn’t been the identical participant for the remainder of the marketing campaign.
“I think just getting a silver medal in Paris, which is a great achievement but not for him, broke his heart a little bit. And I think that affected the rest of the summer and the season as a whole. You have to find what motivates you and stick with it. I think Carlos Alcaraz is a joyful player. I think he’s lost a little bit of that joy this year, for a multitude of reasons,” he defined.
Carlos Alcaraz© cinch Championships/Instagram – Truthful Use
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The previous coach of Pete Sampras and Federer additionally attacked the system by which the ATP rankings are drawn up. Annacone says he would not actually perceive the logic by which the rankings are drawn up and cites the instance of Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz.
Whereas Jannik Sinner closed the season as #1 with a large margin, successful the Australian Open and the US Open amongst different tournaments, Alexander Zverev – who didn’t win any Slam titles – completed in second place whereas Carlos Alcaraz, two-time Slam champion in Paris and London, completed in third place within the rankings. And this side doesn’t go down properly with Annacone.
“If you win two Grand Slams in 2024 and you’re not No. 2 in the world at the end of the year, to me that means there’s a problem in the system,” he stated on the Tennis Channel’s Inside-In podcast.
The ATP rankings are constructed on consistency of outcomes obtained. And over the lengthy distance of the whole season, Zverev has been extra constant on the highest degree than Alcaraz. In fact, the controversy may be infinite and everybody can stay of their very own opinion. However Annacone, whereas praising Alexander Zverev’s yr, sees an anomaly that must be corrected.”Zverev has had an incredible year. The points don’t lie. He’s played an incredible amount of tennis. But if you win two Majors and you’re not No. 2 in the world, to me that means there’s a problem in the system,” added Annacone.
Sinner was the undisputed No. 1 this yr, successful eight titles, together with the Australian Open, US Open and ATP Finals, and ending with 11,830 rating factors. There was a good battle for second place between Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev, with the latter ending the yr at No. 2 with 7,915 factors whereas the Spaniard completed third with 7,010 factors behind.
We recall that Alcaraz and Sinner performed three matches this season, all received by Carlitos. The younger Spanish participant defeat the Italian rival on the BNP Paribas Open di Indian Wells, on the French Open e within the remaining of the China Open. Jannik received solely the exhibition Six Kings Slams in Riyadh, towards the younger Spaniard. Within the head-to-head, Alcaraz leads 6-4. In 2024, Carlos defeat the Italian two occasions on outside hard-courts and as soon as on clay-courts.
