Carlos Alcaraz thought he would perform much better in his first official tournament in indoor conditions since February, but his run at the Paris Masters 1000 ended in the second round against a deluxe version of Cameron Norrie. While emphasizing the enormous merits of the British ace, who was good at believing in the comeback, it is worth highlighting how the current world number 1 has unleashed perhaps the worst performance of his entire season.
The young Spanish star made more than 50 unforced errors and repeatedly complained about the surface being too slow, equating the court of the 'Dfense Arena' with the red clay of Monte Carlo. This premature knockout also reopened the race for the first position in the ATP rankings, as Jannik Sinner plays his best tennis in indoor conditions and had no problem beating Belgian player Zizou Bergs on his debut yesterday.
If the 24-year-old from Sesto Pusteria lifts the trophy in the French capital on Sunday 2nd November, he will return to world number 1 on the eve of the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin (scheduled from 9 to 16 November).
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Alcaraz needs to improve in indoor conditions
There is no doubt that the Italian champion has a much better attitude than his huge rival in indoor conditions and the results of recent years certify this perfectly.
This means that the 22-year-old from Murcia will have to work hard these days before arriving in Turin, where he had already been eliminated in the round robin during the last edition.
In a long interview with 'SuperTennis', former ATP ace Paolo Lorenzi explained the main differences between Jannik and Carlitos in indoor conditions: "Alcaraz is definitely not at Sinner's level in these conditions for a number of reasons. The Italian seems born to play indoors and always makes the perfect choice, instead the Spaniard makes several technical and tactical mistakes. At the same time, I think Carlos will get used to the indoor conditions as time goes on and become very dangerous on these courts as well."
