Carlos Alcaraz says he needs to learn lessons from his latest match after crashing out in the first round of the Astana Open to David Goffin.
The US Open champion was far from his best as he hit a costly 34 unforced errors during his 7-5, 6-3, loss to Goffin, who entered the main draw as a lucky loser following the withdrawal of Holger Rune. It is the first time this season that Alcaraz has played a match without winning at least one set and the third time he has lost his opening match at a tournament.
Reflecting on his defeat, Alcaraz said Goffin’s advantage of having already played on the Astana Courts this week proved decisive. Admitting that he was unable to handle the pressure being placed on him by the Belgian.
“It was a tough game. David played wonderfully. Coming back to the competition (after losing in qualifying) is never easy. He has already played two games on this court, which is not the easiest to get used to. It is very slow and it has been complicated,” Marca.com quoted Alcaraz as saying.
“He played very aggressively and I couldn’t handle the pressure he put on me. It’s something I have to learn from, I have to take note of the lessons from this match,” he added.
Since becoming the youngest player in history to top the Pepperstone ATP rankings, Alcaraz has won one out of three matches played. His solo victory occurred in the Davis Cup when he defeated South Korea’s Kwon Soon-woo. At the same event, he lost to Felix Auger-Aliassime.
“Of course, this is not the result I wanted but we have to keep working,” Alcaraz said of his latest defeat on social media.
It is only the second time in 19 meetings that Alcaraz has been defeated by a player ranked outside the top 50 in 2022. The first to do so was Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti at the Hamburg Open.
Astana isn’t the only event which saw its top player get knocked out in the first round on Tuesday. At the Japan Open, Casper Ruud lost to Jaume Munar in straight sets. Afterwards, the Norwegian admitted that he has been left feeling burned out after playing a packed schedule in recent weeks.
Unless he decides to take a last-minute wild card, Alcaraz is not scheduled to play another tournament until the Swiss Indoors which will begin on October 24th. Despite losing, he will hold on to his No.1 position for the foreseeable future.
