Carlos Alcaraz entered the Paris Masters looking untouchable, touted to be the favorite despite his subpar history at the tournament. The result? Anything but dominance. Cameron Norrie, the British lefty, stunned the World No. 1, earning his first win over a top-ranked player with a gritty 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 triumph in their eighth ATP head-to-head. For the first time since March’s Miami Open R64 exit in 2021, Alcaraz fell in the opening round. However, now it’s not so much the loss that’s being dissected than the Spaniard’s reaction to it.

French tennis journalist Benoit Maylin didn’t hold back on the recent episode of Sans Filet. He pulled apart the Spaniard’s demeanor with brutal honesty. “I didn’t like Alcaraz’s attitude. I didn’t like that body language where he gets angry, he tells himself he won’t make it… Now, he has to prove that he can manage to win even when playing poorly,” he added.

Drawing comparisons to the legends before him, Maylin went deeper: “Nadal, Federer, or Djokovic didn’t always play sublime tennis, but they managed to win because they fought with the humility of a battle. Rafael Nadal would never have had such an attitude on the court. Be careful not to get a little big-headed.”

He warned that the constant praise surrounding Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner could become dangerous. “At some point, you also have to know how to come back down to earth. You have to go to the mine with Cameron Norrie, bring out the pickaxe, and try to win matches that way. Those matches are tough. We know that Ferrero and he are doing tremendous work for him to be performing well at the end of the season, but it didn’t work,” Maylin concluded.

On the court, the numbers told their own story too. Carlos Alcaraz racked up 54 unforced errors, 29 from his once-lethal forehand, and despite winning the opening set, he unraveled as Norrie’s consistency and depth suffocated his rhythm. The Brit’s varied pace, steely defense, and tactical patience dismantled Alcaraz’s power game, ending a dazzling run of nine consecutive finals and 17 straight Masters 1000 victories.

Notably, this is not the first time the player has come under scrutiny for his outbursts. Just last year in August, Alcaraz, enroute a 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 loss to Gael Monfils at the Cincinnati Open, had smashed his racket repeatedly on the court during the third set. Though he had apologized later writing “my attitude yesterday was not appropriate”, the incident only goes onto show that in the relentless grind of men’s tennis, even kings can bleed.

As for the current instance, as the dust settled, the implications rippled across the tour. With Alcaraz’s early exit, Jannik Sinner’s bid to reclaim the World No. 1 ranking suddenly came alive. The Italian, now in complete control of his destiny, could return to the top spot if he captures the Paris crown, even if just for a fleeting week. Meanwhile…

Carlos Alcaraz’s frustration boiled over in back andforth with team

The point Benoit Maylin made seemed to come alive on court as Carlos Alcaraz battled through the Paris night. By the end of the second set, the City of Light had witnessed a version of Alcaraz unseen in months: raw, restless, and visibly on edge.

Frustration simmered just beneath the surface, and before the deciding set began, it erupted. He turned toward his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, the emotion in his voice slicing through the quiet arena. “I don’t feel anything. Zero! The only thing saving me is my serve. I’m doing everything wrong,” he confessed.

Ferrero, calm as ever, refused to match his protégé’s storm. “Everything? Look at what you’re doing well, correct the rest,” he urged, his tone steady but firm. It was the kind of exchange that strips tennis of its glamour and reveals its soul, a young champion at war with his own brilliance, searching for calm amid chaos.

By the time the match ended, the energy had drained from Carlos Alcaraz’s frame. Later, beneath the harsh lights of the press room, he looked not defeated, but lost in thought. When asked about his rhythm, his answer was candid. “I had a lot of practices here, which I was feeling great, feeling amazing, moving on the court, hitting the ball,” he said, his voice soft yet uncertain.

Then came a deeper reflection, a glimpse into the mind of a player struggling to reconnect with his own spark. “I had all the ideas clear, all the goals clear. But today, even in the first set, even that I won, I just felt like I could do much more than what I did.”

As the season nears its end, the echoes of Paris still hum beneath the surface. But where there is frustration, there is also fuel. Whether this night becomes a scar or a spark: Riyadh will tell the tale!