Fabio Fognini Reveals What Happened in the Locker Room After His Heartbreaking Loss to Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon

Fabio Fognini played brilliant tennis against Carlos Alcaraz but it was not enough to earn him the win at the Wimbledon Championships.

Fabio Fognini Reveals What Happened in the Locker Room After His Heartbreaking Loss to Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon

Carlos Alcaraz and Fabio Fognini (via X/Fabio Fognini)

Fabio Fognini pulled out a surprise display against Carlos Alcaraz to send the match to a thrilling five sets at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships. Despite not winning the match, the Italian star rolled back the years with a scintillating performance that got applause from the home crowd before he left the Center Court.

On the hottest opening day on record at Wimbledon, Alcaraz was expfected to breeze past Fognini without a challenge. But the match began with an intense, high-level tennis from the free-hitting Italian, who kept pouncing on the Spaniard’s errors. However, Alcaraz claimed the first set, winning, 5-7.

The second set followed with the same level of display from the 38-year-old as he pulled Alcaraz from side to side with his aggressive baseline hitting before hitting a drop shot or a volley. The Spaniard didn’t have an answer to the Italian star’s tactics as he lacked fluency and power in his forehand shots.

That worked well for Fognini until the fifth set. It was in that set that the match was suspended after a fan fell ill due to the intense London heat. After 15 minutes, the match resumed, and it was Alcaraz who dominated proceedings. He led 5-0 before Fognini claimed his first point, which was enough for Alcaraz to triumph 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 in four hours and 37 minutes.

After the match, Alcaraz showed a class act by joining the crowd to give a standing ovation to Fognini, who allegedly played the last Wimbledon Championships of his career. The Italian star revealed during his press conference that he cried in the locker room, as he didn’t expect that he would play five sets against the World No.2:

It was very emotional. I cried in the locker room. I cried. I didn’t expect to play five sets against Alcaraz, I must be honest. I had no expectations today, considering how I arrived at this match, with all I’ve been through this year, with the injury.

Fognini had arrived at Wimbledon with no wins on grass. He had a loss in the opening match at Stuttgart, Nottingham, and Mallorca. In fact, the last time the 38-year-old won a match was at the Turin Challenger in May. He had also struggled with several injuries in his career, especially this season.

Carlos Alcaraz says the intense heat at Wimbledon was the cause of his rusty opening match display

Carlos Alcaraz might have even needed a bit of luck to overcome Fabio Fognini in the first round of the Wimbledon Championship. The Spaniard showed signs of rust hitting 20 unforced errors in the match despite arriving in London with an 18-match winning streak, the longest in his career. However, the intense heat certainly took a toll on him.

Carlos Alcaraz (via X/Wimbledon)
Carlos Alcaraz (via X/Wimbledon)

He had to dig deep mentally and physically to survive a major scare against the 38-year-old Italian. After the match, he revealed that playing under the heat made it tough for him to deal with Fognini’s tactical display:

Playing in such a high heat is really difficult to deal with and it is even tougher when you’re playing long matches, long rallies. Part of the match you can feel down a little bit because of the sun hitting all the time. I have to be ready to battle. I’ve been practising really well and playing really well but Wimbledon is different. I could feel the difference.

Alcaraz will now hope to get used to the conditions ahead of his second-round clash against British star Oliver Tarvet. The Spaniard was handed a pretty easy draw at the tournament and the only opponent ranked in the top 10 in his own quarter was Holger Rune, who suffered an opening defeat against Nicolas Jarry.

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