{"id":297005,"date":"2023-05-15T20:37:01","date_gmt":"2023-05-15T20:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=297005"},"modified":"2023-05-15T21:59:12","modified_gmt":"2023-05-15T21:59:12","slug":"french-open-favourite-stunned-by-world-no-135","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=297005","title":{"rendered":"French Open favourite stunned by world No.135"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> didn\u2019t see this one coming. How could he have?<\/p>\n

About to reclaim the No.1 ranking, Alcaraz was pretty much pushed off the court at the Italian Open<\/a> by 135th-ranked Hungarian qualifier Fabian Marozsan 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the third round.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz suffered his earliest defeat since October.<\/p>\n

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He'd won 30 of 32 matches this year and was on a 12-match winning streak on clay after consecutive titles in Barcelona and Madrid.<\/p>\n

He secured a return to the top spot next week by winning his opening match in Rome. But he was caught off guard by how Marozsan dictated with spectacular play all over the court, including drop shots that Alcaraz had no answer for.<\/p>\n

\"Carlos<\/p>\n

\u201cI just didn\u2019t feel comfortable. He made me feel uncomfortable on court,\u201d Alcaraz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was aggressive all the time. He was playing inside the baseline all the time. It was tough for me to get into the match, into the rally. I made a lot of mistakes that I usually don\u2019t make too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result means Alcaraz will go into Roland-Garros \u2014 which starts in less than two weeks and where he will be the top seed \u2014 coming off a dispiriting defeat.<\/p>\n

Making matters even more surprising was that this is the first time Marozsan is playing in the main draw of an ATP tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe surprise(d) me a lot. His level was really, really high,\u201d Alcaraz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure he\u2019s going to break the top 100 very, very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenRothenberg\/status\/1658198046788689920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

Marozsan posted his first victories over top-100 players in the first two rounds when he beat No.67 Corentin Moutet and 32nd-seeded Jiri Lehecka.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything was perfect today: The crowd, the weather, the court,\u201d Marozsan said after stunning the packed stadium on Campo Centrale.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just try to do something special or winning a few games or maybe a set or something like this, and I just beat the world No.1 \u2014 he\u2019s our best in the sport."<\/p>\n

Alcaraz led 4-1 in the tiebreaker but Marozsan won six straight points to close it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing. I don\u2019t know what happened during the points," Marozsan said. "I just try to hit back every ball and try to do my best.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Fabian<\/p>\n

Late in the second set, Alcaraz tried firing himself up by yelling \u201cVamos\u201d every time he won a significant point.<\/p>\n

But Marozsan just kept coming, unleashing a 132km\/h backhand winner up the line to conclude one point and winning several close exchanges at the net.<\/p>\n

By the end, Marozan had twice as many winners as Alcaraz, 24 to 12, and far fewer unforced errors, 13 to 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t follow his level," Alcaraz said.<\/p>\n

"He was at the same level the whole match. That is very, very difficult. He deserves the win. If he plays at that level, he\u2019s going to surprise more than one (player).\u201d<\/p>\n

Marozsan will next face Borna Coric, who continued his solid form on clay by beating Roberto Carballes Baena 7-6 (3), 6-1.<\/p>\n

At the Madrid Open last week, Coric reached the semi-finals before losing to Alcaraz.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carlos Alcaraz didn\u2019t see this one coming. How could he have? About to reclaim the No.1 ranking, Alcaraz was pretty much pushed off the court […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":297007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297005"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=297005"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":297010,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297005\/revisions\/297010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/297007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=297005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=297005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=297005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}