Carlos Alcaraz may have sent an unwanted message to his biggest rivals with his brutal honest verdict on his defeat at the hands of Jack Draper in a compelling Indian Wells semi-final.<\/p>\n
Losing to the rising star of men\u2019s tennis was no disgrace for two-time defending Indian Wells champion Alcaraz<\/a>, but elite sports stars rarely offer up the kind of comments the 21-year-old Spaniard made as he spoke to the media.<\/p>\n Athletes tend to hide their insecurities for fear of allowing their rivals to gain an advantage, but it would be hard not to draw additional inspiration from Alcaraz\u2019s comments if you are in the Draper camp.<\/p>\n The young Brit beat Alcaraz on a grass court at the Queen\u2019s Club last June, so his three-set win against the four-time Grand Slam winner in Indian Wells was not a major surprise.<\/p>\n Yet it was surprising to hear Alcaraz suggesting he was \u2018nervous all day\u2019 in the build up to his latest meeting with a player who clearly unsettles him.<\/p>\n He even revealed details of a conversation he had with his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero prior to the match that revealed more about his mindset ahead of the Draper clash.<\/p>\n \u201cI think today has been a difficult day for me. I didn\u2019t practice well. I didn\u2019t feel myself well on court,\u201d said Alcaraz in his press conference.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, even in the warming up on court, I was missing a lot. I didn\u2019t feel my shots. So that\u2019s why I was talking with Juan Carlos on the bike, because I was a little bit mad with myself about the way I warmed up on court.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I said, I didn\u2019t approach the match in the best way that I could. So I was nervous during the whole day, in the practice before the match, and I think that affect, you know, to the match. So that\u2019s why I had the conversation with Juan Carlos on the bike.<\/p>\n \u201cI always say that I have to be focused on myself, on my own game. I think today I was more worried about his level, his game, than myself.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I think that\u2019s was a big problem to me, that I was always thinking about his weakness than my best things. So when you\u2019re thinking more about the opponent than yourself, then it is a big problem.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that\u2019s what happened today. Since the beginning of the day, since the morning, I was thinking about his game, because he\u2019s really tough, he\u2019s really solid, and it\u2019s going to be a really physical match. So I was thinking all these things since the beginning of the day, and I think that a big problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Jannik Sinner the big winner as Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz fail to cash in world No 1\u2019s absence<\/a><\/p>\n Is Jannik Sinner being missed at Indian Wells? The harsh reality<\/a><\/p>\n Alcaraz\u2019s honesty is one of the reasons why he is so easy to relate to as a tennis fan, but you would not hear Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal discuss how nervous they were prior to a match and especially after a defeat.<\/p>\n There is no doubt that Alcaraz was gripped with tension as he was blown away by Draper in the opening set of his 6-1, 0-6, 6-4 defeat, but his opponents and others in the locker room may take an additional confidence boost after reading those comments from Alcaraz.<\/p>\n The great champions build an aura around them that leads their rivals to conclude they are invincible, yet Alcaraz showed his vulnerabilities in his post-match press conference after his first defeat at Indian Wells in three years and it will have been noted by those looking to knock him off his perch.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Carlos Alcaraz crashes out of Indian Wells after controversial double video replay<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Did Carlos Alcaraz make a \u2018big mistake\u2019 with his comments after Jack Draper defeat?<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carlos Alcaraz may have sent an unwanted message to his biggest rivals with his brutal honest verdict on his defeat at the hands of Jack Draper in a compelling Indian Wells semi-final. Losing to the rising star of men\u2019s tennis was no disgrace for two-time defending Indian Wells champion Alcaraz, but elite sports stars rarely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/h3>\n