Carlos Alcaraz is ready to learn lessons after his third round exit at the Rolex Paris Masters.
The 18 year-old crashed out in the French capital after a painful 6-4 7-5 defeat to French wildcard Hugo Gaston in front of a hostile Parisian crowd.
After losing the opening set, Alcaraz raced out to a 5-0 lead and looked in control of the second set.
However the Spaniard’s inexperience was key and he started to make a lot of mistakes as the noise of the crowd had effected him.
That saw Gaston reel off an incredible seven games in a row as he booked a place in a first Masters 1000 quarter-final.
Triumph for Gaston was Alcaraz’s dispair and after the match, the Spaniard took to Instagram to describe the hostile experience, “It is never easy to play with the public against and yesterday it proved, I knew it would be difficult to deal with the atmosphere that existed but I could not imagine that it could be so heavy,” Alcaraz admitted on his Instagram page.
“My first time in this situation was not easy for me, it hurt me a lot not to know how to deal with that pressure but like everything in life, we fall but we get up and move on, the most important thing is to learn from these situations and I am sure that I will come back stronger and with lessons learned.
“I want to thank you for all the messages of encouragement that I have received since the game ended, you do not know how much it can help me to see your support and encouragement, THANK YOU VERY MUCH! Now it’s time to take those lessons and think about Milan next week at @nextgenfinals.”
There is still a lot of time for Alcaraz to learn how to deal with different situations as the Spaniard has achieved remarkable things in 2021 with a first ATP tour title and a first grand slam quarter-final on the list of breakthrough moments for this season.
However as for Gaston, the Frenchman praised the incredible atmosphere as he looks to a maiden Masters 1000 quarter-final, “He made a lot of mistakes, because I managed to have fast balls, slow balls, to have high balls. He started to lose his groove, and I stayed focused. This is why I managed to overturn the match in my favour,” Gaston analysed to atptour.com.
“[The atmosphere] was incredible. Honestly, I have been playing tennis for this. It was actually incredible. It was really wonderful to live this match with them. I actually won because they supported me from beginning to the end even when I had a let down during the first or the second set, they were always cheering me. It’s incredible to have such a great public.”
Gaston will now play Daniil Medvedev for a place in the semi-finals in the night session at Paris.
