One of the biggest upsets in the sports history

Clay lover

Clay lover

Legend
Better_Call_Raul said:
Age is a mitigating factor only when you are not yet established.
Once you have won 4 Majors there are certain expectations. Age goes out the window.
Shocking Olympic upset to injured old Djoker, loss to 48 y.o. clown Monfils, Botic...
Can anyone recall an ATG struggling like this after firmly establishing himself as a #1 player?
:unsure:
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Please note I mentioned playstyle, not age.

I don't care about what people expect of him. His style means he has won the slams he has won, and has lost the slams he has lost. That's all there is to it. It doesn't make him a clown, it doesn't make him big three level. It makes him who he is.
 
KingCarlitos

KingCarlitos

Hall of Fame
Lleytonstation said:
Nothing wrong with Agassi numbers. Carlos will be lucky to get that.

But maybe that shows how ridiculous those projections were.
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There is nothing wrong with Agassi numbers, Andre was a ATG and incredible players but Alcaraz has half of Agassi’s numbers and he’s 21 so he is definitely on the trajectory to surpass Agassi or even Sampras If everything goes well.
 
Lleytonstation

Lleytonstation

Talk Tennis Guru
KingCarlitos said:
There is nothing wrong with Agassi numbers, Andre was a ATG and incredible players but Alcaraz has half of Agassi’s numbers and he’s 21 so he is definitely on the trajectory to surpass Agassi or even Sampras If everything goes well.
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Trajectory means nothing.

It is as good as a projection.

Carlos is on a bad trajectory if you do want to play this game though.
 
J

JMR

Hall of Fame
Lleytonstation said:
Nothing wrong with Agassi numbers. Carlos will be lucky to get that.

But maybe that shows how ridiculous those projections were.
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Agassi didn't win his fourth slam until age 29. That year was also the only time that Agassi won two slams in a year.

I think it would be hard for Alcaraz not to reach Agassi numbers unless he does a Courier (as I commented in another thread) and sees his results decline at an ever-accelerating pace. Courier was retiring just as Agassi was getting the big second wind in his own career.

Big Three-level projections are pointless, of course. I assume similar achievements will occur again someday in men's tennis, but they're so unlikely that predicting them for a specific player, especially one still at an early stage of his career, is not worth the effort.
 
nolefam_2024

nolefam_2024

Bionic Poster
Most amazing things is his chance to end number 1 is gone. He unfairly ended in 2022 at number 1 or the gap would be 9 vs 0 now.

It's 8 vs 1 but he got a cheap spot
 
TheFifthSet

TheFifthSet

Legend
Clay lover said:
Some people who overreact at this are the types who purposely overrated him so that they can put him down afterwards.

He has always been a more risk-taking, up-and-down kinda player and it's also been becoming apparent that HC is his relative weakness despite his slam here.

He can definitely wise up, or continue to play the same, but I won't be surprised at upsets either way as his game by default isn't the consistent one we expect from Djoker or the big three who we've been spoiled with.

And holding him to big 3 standards isn't fair in the first place. I don't care who hypes him that way but it's not his fault.
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Yeah it’s clear Raz isn’t anywhere near TB3 levels but whoever is disappointed…that’s on them. Doesn’t take a discerning eye to see he’s a topsy-turvy player compared to those three (at least for now) and hasn’t exactly been mowing down legends in their primes to win the four Majors he has.

I don’t like the lofty comparisons either, in fact they actively annoy me, but he’s a fun player with room for improvement and I’ll take that, other people jumping the gun is their own problem.
 
C

ChrisJR3264

Hall of Fame
Think about it this way and I know some folks here haven’t paid much attention when guys like Novak and medvedev have said guys ranked through 150-200 all hit clean and can beat you when they play their best. What separates them and you in the to 10-20 is consistency right ?

Early on Carlos started awful but his expressions were still trying to be entertaining with some of his shot selections. I’m unsure if he feels the need or can’t help himself to go for jaw droppers but when they’re not working - maybe take a page out of Novak’s book?

It’s a bad loss on paper. But even for someone like Alcaraz, burnout happens right? He had a few comments that hinted that way about having some sort of enjoyment outside of tennis earlier this summer. He won RG and Wimbledon, Indian wells. He didn’t really play many tourneys during clay leading up to RG.

After Olympics final loss, you sensed some mental and physical fatigue in Cincinnati loss. Lost a match he should’ve won. It Carried over to NY. Not much down time for some of these guys who played Olympics after Wimbledon. No time to reset at home before the American swing.
 
C

ChrisJR3264

Hall of Fame
duaneeo said:
It might simply be the surface. Since winning 2022 USO, Carlos' results on hard have only been good at Indian Wells.
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I’ve called this out many times. Not that he can’t win more tourneys on faster hard court surfaces but he’s vulnerable to upsets.
 
Bubcay

Bubcay

Legend
This tells you everything you need to know about the match... He was just outplayed...

IMG-20240830-144939.jpg
 
socallefty

socallefty

G.O.A.T.
Bigger shocker than the loss is zero winners in set 1 by Alcaraz against an unseeded player who is not a fast mover.
 
Move

Move

Hall of Fame
socallefty said:
Bigger shocker than the loss is zero winners in set 1 by Alcaraz against an unseeded player who is not a fast mover.
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That is not fair to Botic. He shure has wheels (and weapons). Did you see the match?
Its all in the mind
Botic, you beautiful beast!
 
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pirhaksar

pirhaksar

Professional
There’s no sugar coating this. This match is a big upset mainly because several of us thought he was fave to win and he lost to someone no one expected either. Winning 3 slams at 21 was on the cards and would have clearly put him ahead of the Big 3 at 21…heck he still is outpacing them. So yes this was a big upset…I can’t recall a fancied young superstar losing this early and this unexpectedly in recent times. But Raz will bounce back, he came back super strong this year after a disappointing year end.
 
Unseeded Player

Unseeded Player

Hall of Fame
His early rise will cost him longevity. Add to that his very toiling style of play where he acumulates strength in every hit.. Upsets like these will be more often in the future.
 
R

Racquet_smash

Professional
duaneeo said:
It might simply be the surface. Since winning 2022 USO, Carlos' results on hard have only been good at Indian Wells.
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Before uso22 to be honest, the stars aligned for him during that tournament.

In fact, i'd say he's been impressive on hc only at the sunshine double.
 
jimjam

jimjam

Professional
socallefty said:
Nadal lost to Darcis in straight sets at Wimbledon 2013 in the first round. He has a couple of stinkers in second rounds also at Wimbledon.
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You can repeat this each time and people will still forget that the big 3 lost plenty of random matches.
 
zagor

zagor

Bionic Poster
Lleytonstation said:
Three. He is not even top 2 fav at AO. Current trajectory says he will not make it out of round 3.

My point is trajectory and projections mean nothing. Accomplishments do. He has 4. He will be lucky to get 4 more.
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Predictions in tennis are hard, always have been. IMO one worrying sign for Alcaraz fans is that he doesn't seem to be improving his game or adding new things to it, stagnancy has always been the death of dominance.

He played a much better Wimbledon last year for example, this year he got broken 20+ times and was on the brink of losing to Tiafoe. He needs a more dominant service game and more consistency in general, time will tell if he's able to do it.
 
H

Hamnavoe

Hall of Fame
Think one of the biggest in the sport's history is over-egging it a bit and underselling van de Zandschulp. He's had his struggles over the last 18 months or so but he's still a guy who almost made the top 20 a couple of years back, has a solid record against good players (7-13 vs the top 10) and has made the quarters at the US Open before in 2021 - ending up as the only guy to take a set from Medvedev on his winning run. This isn't a George Bastl situation.

That said it was a pretty big shock to wake up to the news this morning. I'd say biggest shock in the 2020s, probably the most surprised I've been by a slam loss since Millman over Federer in 2018 (in fact that was Millman's only ever top 10 win).

Was pretty cool to see Botic's understated reaction to the win. I always think he looks quite old-school, like tennis players used to look 20-25 years ago - could easily pass for a tomato farmer too. Hopefully this win can put his career back on a properly upward trajectory.
 
C

ChrisRF

Legend
Gary Duane said:
I believe if he doesn't improve his service game then he will have already peaked and there is nowhere for him to go but down.
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This might very well be true, or to say it less drastically he won't further improve then and stay on this level.

Actually at Wimbledon I thought his serve got better though, but maybe he needs the grass to be able to really dominate on serve, and this won't be enough for the regular hardcourt tour then.
 
Bastion

Bastion

Semi-Pro
socallefty said:
Nadal lost to Darcis in straight sets at Wimbledon 2013 in the first round. He has a couple of stinkers in second rounds also at Wimbledon.
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O yes, now I also remember the match he lost against the one match goat, Lucas Rosol. That was huge by Rosol, but only that one match, maybe he was on drugs or something. If he could have played the rest of the tournament like that, he would have won Wimby that year!
 
Bastion

Bastion

Semi-Pro
NaDjoFed said:
the NY court seems so fast this year, not good for Alcaraz. just my impression or they changed something?
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I don't understand, thought he was the quickest on tour? Or he another Nadal needing slower clay courts? But again, a 37 year old beat him on the clay just a few weeks ago?

So what is his best surface then?
 
Move

Move

Hall of Fame
Hamnavoe said:
Was pretty cool to see Botic's understated reaction to the win. I always think he looks quite old-school, like tennis players used to look 20-25 years ago - could easily pass for a tomato farmer too. Hopefully this win can put his career back on a properly upward trajectory.
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He is the definition of coolness. A light fist pump when he made the biggest win of his career and the biggest upset of this decade in Mens Tennis
 
Aussie Darcy

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
This wouldn't even be in my top 50 biggest upsets in tennis history lol.

Alcaraz wasn't even the betting favourite for this slam. Hardly "one of the biggest upsets in the sports history".

Compare it to Nadal losing to Soderling or to Rosol, Federer losing to Stakhovsky, Serena losing to Vinci, Djokovic losing to Chung or Istomin, Hewitt against Karlovic. Now those were MASSIVE.

This is funny lol.
 
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