The young Spanish tennis player, who had previously won in Barcelona and Madrid, lost to Hungarian tennis player Fabián Marozsan, who entered Rome ranked 135th in the ATP. Despite being knocked out, he will be the world number one at the French Open.

After two splendid tournaments, Carlos Alcaraz was defeated 6-3, 7-6(4) by Fabián Marozsan, a complete unknown on the ATP circuit.  The Hungarian tennis player managed to disrupt Alcaraz’s game, defeating him and advancing to the next round of the Rome Masters 1000, the first one he has played in his entire career.

A bad start conditioned the match

The match started off challenging for the player from Murcia. He had a chance to break his opponent’s serve in the first game, but Marozsan recovered and held on. It could have been a turning point, but the Hungarian managed it well and started a streak. With the 135th-ranked player in the world delivering drop shots against the current number two and a specialist in this style of shot, the game went from 0-1 to 4-1 in no time.

With the first set score of 5-3 in favour of Marozsan, Carlos Alcaraz requested a new racket, not so much for a radical shift as for better sensations. It didn’t make a difference, and Marozsan took the set.

However, ‘Carlitos’ did not give up and attempted to re-enter the match in the second set. He saved three break points against him and reached a tiebreak, but it was in vain. Marozsan won the tiebreak and couldn’t believe what he had just accomplished: he had eliminated the world number one.

Alcaraz: “I just didn’t feel comfortable”

Despite the loss, Alcaraz denied any physical problems and praised his opponent’s performance. ‘I just didn’t feel comfortable. He made me feel uncomfortable on court. He was aggressive all the time. He was always playing within the baseline. ‘It was difficult for me to get into the game, the rally,’ added the Spaniard.

Marozsan, on the other hand, was ecstatic after the match. ‘The goal for me was winning one match in the qualifiers. Now I just won five matches. I’m very, very happy. I just beat the No 1, he’s the best in our sport, so I’m really happy with this.’ Marozsan will move up to 114th in the world rankings as a result of this performance, but if he keeps this pace, he will soon be among the top 100 in tennis.