Carlos Alcaraz sums up his latest startling defeat and explains what he needs to improve

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Carlos Alcaraz during a match
Carlos Alcaraz of Spain reacts

Carlos Alcaraz was left scratching his head after his latest shock defeat at the Paris Masters as he admitted that he has “to improve a lot”.

Playing for the first time since he was upset by Grigor Dimitrov in the round of 16 at the Shanghai Masters, Alcaraz was dumped out of the ATP Masters 1000 event in Paris-Bercy by world No 45 Roman Safiullin on Tuesday.

After shaking off the foot and back injury that forced him to skip last week’s Swiss Indoors, the world No 2 was expected to make a smooth return.

But he produced an erratic display and never really got going with Safiullin notching up an impressive 6-3, 6-4 second-round victory.

So what did Alcaraz make of his performance?

“I just didn’t feel well on the court,” he said. “A lot of things to improve, a lot of things to practise. I didn’t move well. In the shots, I think I had a good quality of shots. But physically in the part of movement, I have to improve a lot.”

Last year the Spaniard fell in the quarter-final in Paris-Bercy while his record since this year’s US Open is far from impressive as he also lost in the semi-final of the China Open for a 7-3 record.

Asked why he has struggled at the Paris Masters, the Wimbledon champion replied: “I don’t know. Probably the season has been so, so long. Probably that affects my game.

“I think this tournament has a lot of surprise. I don’t know, because if it’s, you know, the end of the season, players are tired.

“But talking about myself, I don’t know, honestly. I have to figure out and I’ll try to the next years to be better in this part of the year.”

There is still one big tournament remaining as Alcaraz and the rest of the top eight will compete at the ATP Finals from November 13 to 19.

And the two-time Grand Slam winner knows he has to up his level in the next week.

“I have time before the ATP Finals, a lot of days of practice to be able to reach that level, the level that I want to play,” he said.

“But right now I’m not in the right time to talk. Honestly after the loss, I have to take some time, you know, before thinking about the next days, you know, and the days that what I have to do or what I’m gonna do, you know.

“But obviously before the ATP Finals begun, we have time.”

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