Tim Henman believes Carlos Alcaraz was ‘distracted’ against Jesper De Jong as ‘he got himself in a spot of bother’ during his second-round match at the French Open

Henman believes the Spaniard was dealing with some problems in the third set. 

Tim Henman believes Carlos Alcaraz was ‘distracted’ against Jesper De Jong as ‘he got himself in a spot of bother’ during his second-round match at the French Open

Carlos Alcaraz, Tim Henman (Images via Imago, X)

Former British No. 1 Tim Henman observed Carlos Alcaraz‘s game when he took on qualifier Jesper De Jong in the second round of the Roland Garros and found that the Spaniard was losing his focus. On Wednesday (May 29), Alcaraz went past the Dutchman with a scoreline of 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 on the Philipe-Chatrier court in three hours and 10 minutes. 

Alcaraz injured his arm during last month’s Madrid Open after his quarterfinal loss to Andrey Rublev who then went on to win the final by beating Felix Auger-Aliassime. Because of the injury, Henman said the 21-year-old Spaniard was lacking something and needs to up his level to progress further.

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Probably around his arm, how he is really feeling, and his attitude and concentration. I just felt like he was a little bit distracted. 
Tim Henman told Eurosport 

Many expect Alcaraz to do great things in the future. He has shown what he is capable of on clay, and so not securing a victory in straight sets made Henman believe the Spaniard was dealing with some problems in the third set. 

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I think in normal circumstances, when he’s 100% fit, healthy, he’s played matches, he runs away with that in three straight sets. He definitely got himself in a spot of bother in the third set.
Tim Henman said 

Before De Jong, Alcaraz went past J. J. Wolf comfortably in the first round 6-1, 6-2, 6-1. He will next face the winner of the second-round match between America’s Sebastian Korda and South Korea’s Kwon Soon-woo.

Alex Corretja says Carlos Alcaraz was not confident enough due to the arm injury 

The arm injury made Carlos Alcaraz miss the Italian Open, and although he didn’t struggle much in the first round in the current tournament, the match against Jesper De Jong made two-time Roland Garros finalist Alex Corretja believe his compatriot was not confident enough as he might have been thinking about the injury pain.

Carlos Alcaraz
Carlos Alcaraz (Image via Imago)
Then he got some doubts that this pain was going to show up again, which unfortunately he didn't. 
Alex Corretja told Eurosport

Alcaraz is searching for his first French Open title. He was the heavy favorite last year but ended up losing the semifinal to World No.1 Novak Djokovic. In 2022, he got knocked out of the quarterfinal by Alexander Zverev while in 2021, he made it to the third round. The only title Alcaraz won this year was the Indian Wells Masters.

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