Renowned Tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou has showered praise on Carlos Alcaraz and reckons any other player would have panicked if he had lost the opening set against Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open. The Spaniard lost the opening set by 2-6 against the Serbian as the veteran played at an incredible level.
However, Alcaraz was able to bounce back into the contest, winning the second set by 6-2. Subsequently, the World No.1 won the next two sets to win his maiden Australian Open title and became the youngest to complete a Career Grand Slam.
The Spaniard held his head high despite losing the first set and he was back to his best in the second set.
“You can find a million qualities to Alcaraz,” Mouratoglou said in an Instagram post. “If there is one that is bigger than anything else, it’s how much he is an incredible competitor who finds solutions in the worst situations. He doesn’t need to play great to win.
“What I can say about the men’s final is, when I see the first set, I tell you: ‘Novak is going to win.’ Because when Novak is like this, nobody can resist.
Anyone else would have panicked: ‘my opponent, who is the best player of all time, is playing unbelievable. I will find a solution and I will win at the end.’
“He [Alcaraz] has this voice that tells him, ‘don’t worry.’ And I would say 99.9 per cent of players would have lost this final against Novak.
“He is the best mental player of all time, but he didn’t win against Carlos because he felt at some point, ‘wow, he’s going to still challenge me every time, I’m completely exhausted physically, exhausted mentally. I played the perfect first set, that should put a lot of pressure on him. Instead of going down, he’s slowly coming up. He’s finding solutions.’
“You had two mental monsters in front of each other, it was not so much about the game. It was about who was going to give up here (head) and none of the guys gave up.
“So at the end, it was the most physically fit that won. There is no surprise to see that Carlos is already breaking a lot of records. He has the game, he has the level and he has this mental strength that is making such a difference.”
Alcaraz has decided to opt out of the Rotterdam Open.
