"He was more involved than me," says Alcaraz after his defeat against Fritz at the Laver Cup

Adrien Guyot

le 21/09/2025 à 07h41

2 min to read

Alcaraz Fritz

Team World takes a clear advantage at the Laver Cup: Carlos Alcaraz, freshly crowned world number 1, suffered a clear defeat against Taylor Fritz.

Carlos Alcaraz was defeated this Saturday evening in San Francisco. The Spaniard, who reclaimed the world number 1 spot at the expense of Jannik Sinner after the US Open, fell to Taylor Fritz (6-3, 6-2), putting Team Europe in a difficult position before the last day of the 2025 Laver Cup.

In a press conference, the 22-year-old player reflected on his first career defeat against Fritz in four encounters and regretted not having enough time to get used to the court conditions.

"He was more involved than me on the court. The first or second shot of the rally was very important, and he executed it much better than I did. That was decisive because in these conditions, the first shots are very important.

When you're defending, when you're running, it's very difficult to turn the situation around. Switching to attack is very complicated because of the balls and the conditions, which are very slow. Taylor (Fritz) was more aggressive than me.

In conditions like these, you need to spend more time on the court. Last night, I played doubles, but it's completely different from a singles match. You need to see everything, and I wasn't seeing the ball very well.

I felt like I was too far, not in the right position, in the right place, which is sometimes frustrating. I needed more time on the court. I needed more practice to improve.

The fact of having only one court makes it quite difficult for teams to practice as they wish before the matches, but that's no excuse. Today, I felt like I had to win the point given how the day was unfolding.

There was a bit more pressure, but not because I'm the world number 1. The ranking is just a number. It shouldn't pressure you into having to win everything. But with the two defeats, that's what I felt," said Alcaraz to Punto de Break.