As Carlos Alcaraz sat down in the early hours of Thursday morning, time was running out and he knew it. In his short career, the 19-year-old has established a reputation for taking defeats with perspective and a smile on his face, but this time he had nothing. He had generated enough chances to win in straight sets and he had mostly played incredibly well, but never when it really mattered. He found himself down 4-3 in the fourth set to Jannik Sinner, two games from defeat.
His composure momentarily gone, Alcaraz spent the entire change of ends ranting towards his distinguished coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, about the one weakness that had handcuffed him all night: “Where do I serve to? I don’t know how to serve,” he shouted. Ferrero did not respond.
