Just In: Carlos Alcaraz’s unexpected gesture after leaving US Open court speaks volumes
Carlos Alcaraz’s return to competition ended in a five-set defeat in the US Open quarter-finals in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The Spanish superstar spent four-and-a-half months sidelined by a wrist injury and made the bold choice to return to competition at a Grand Slam tournament, playing best-of-five set matches.
But he stormed into the quarter-finals for the loss of just one set before he was finally usurped by Ben Shelton, losing 6-7(5) 6-1 6-3 1-6 7-6(7) in a first-to-10-point match tiebreak at 3.33am. It was just the second five-set match Alcaraz had lost in his career, four-and-a-half years after his last defeat.
But while leaving Arthur Ashe Stadium in the middle of the night after coming out on the losing end of a four-hour and 28-minute battle, the world No. 3 was all smiles. There are cameras in the tunnels out of Ashe, and they often capture the difficult moments after a defeat.
Alex Michelsen, who blew a two-set and 5-3 lead over Frances Tiafoe to lose in five sets on Tuesday, understandably had a towel over his head and was in tears as he left the court after failing to close it out.
But Alcaraz was grinning from ear to ear as he left the biggest stage in tennis, and even fist-bumped an attendant standing at the entrance. Screenshots of the seven-time Major champion’s smiley exit have been widely shared among tennis fans online. And those screenshots should seriously worry the rest of the tour.
The fact that Alcaraz is back in the swing of competition, immediately able to play for four-and-a-half hours deep into the night, and leaves New York focusing only on the positives, is a scary prospect. He’s back.
As I said before the tournament began, my expectation was to go there, you know, compete, play in these kind of matches for me being healthy. It was close. It was close. So I’m just not going to be disappointed about [not] getting the win at the end. You know, I’m just happy. I’m just proud about myself, about how I fought,” the 23-year-old said afterwards.
“I leave the court happy. I leave the court with a smile, healthy, and this is what I needed.”
Losing to an in-form, fired-up Shelton, who was serving lights out all night, is certainly nothing to be ashamed of. If anything, Alcaraz can be – and clearly is – very happy with the level he showed straight off the bat this fortnight, with no match rhythm in his legs.
Now that he’s played five matches in 10 days, including that late-night thriller against Shelton, which could have gone either way, he’ll be even more dangerous from here on out.
Had Alcaraz been disappointed, angry or upset, there might have been some concern. It could have signalled that he wasn’t satisfied with his comeback, that there was work to be done before he was back at his best. But that smile said it all.
The world No. 3 is set to compete in the Laver Cup, the Japan Open, and the Shanghai Masters in the coming weeks. And nobody will want to face him.
