Carlos Alcaraz offers concerning ‘out of my mind’ update ahead of Shanghai debut

Carlos Alcaraz raised some concerns as he admitted he went “out of [his] mind” during his defeat to Jannik Sinner at the recent China Open. The world No 2 is now making his debut at the Shanghai Masters and admitted that he found the mental side of tennis the most difficult thing to control.

Alcaraz crashed out of Beijing with a 7-6(4) 6-1 defeat to Sinner on Tuesday, later admitting that he got too angry in the second set and let it run away from him. The 20-year-old has now doubled down on his comments, making a candid admission about his struggles with working on the mental side of his game.

“Well I always say that mentally is the toughest part to practice but at the same time it’s the most important thing if you want to be the best in tennis,” the two-time Grand Slam champion told Tennis TV.

“I’m trying to work in every practice, in every tournament that I go [to], learn from the things that probably I was not doing great.” And Alcaraz brought up his woes against Sinner, continuing: “For example, the last match against Jannik I said that I [was] out of my mind in the second set so this is something that I have to work on I’m trying not to happen the next time.

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“I want to be the best so I have to practice mentally to be strong enough to play at the same level and don’t have up-and-downs.” While Alcaraz was working on the mental side, he said it was still tough to stay composed in the tough moments.

“It’s difficult to control yourself most of the time. So it’s for me, difficult yeah,” he added. Immediately after suffering a defeat to Sinner, the Spaniard also owned up to complaining during the second set, where he won just one game.

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Alcaraz told reporters: “In the second set I was mentally out [of it]. I was complaining too much, something that really makes it difficult for you to play at your best level, that’s what it means to be angry with yourself. This is what happened.”

But the 20-year-old has already studied the match alongside his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero and he will be hoping to right his wrongs in Shanghai over the next nine days. Alcaraz will make his debut against Gregoire Barrere on Saturday after receiving a bye to the second round. He could only face Sinner in the final, with the Italian sitting in the bottom half of the draw.

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