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Alcaraz Stumped By Courier In Laver Arena
12 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles
After Carlos Alcaraz defeated Miomir Kecmanovic 64 64 60 he was asked by on court interviewer Jim Courier, one of my Biofile questions, which players he likes to watch. The Spanish dynamo answered: “I’m a huge fan of tennis. Love to watch every match. But love to play Daniil, Novak, Sinner as well. Those guys. Every time they step on the court they put their best level. Those players are the best in the world.”
Courier was not satisfied with that answer though and asked Carlos which WTA players he likes to observe?
Carlos was caught off guard… “WTA? I watch as well (smiles) When I can I put my TV on…”
But the ATP world no. 2 was not able to specify any particular players, not even Paula Badosa, Emma Raducanu or Coco Gauff – or even some notable legends like Serena, Maria or Graf of Seles.
Expect the handlers of Carlos to re-educate him on this topic and he will have a more satisfactory answer next time.
Alcaraz painting by Ted Dimond
AO · Carlos Alcaraz · Jim Courier · WTA
Matt Segel · January 22, 2024 at 7:01 pm
Haha that’s so funny!
Scoop Malinowski · January 22, 2024 at 7:51 pm
Matt, But at his press conference, Carlos had a new answer 🙂 Carlos: Carlos Alcaraz tells us why he didn’t name his favourite players on the WTA: “I was too shy to say it but my favourite player is Raducanu. I watched her first round match, it’s so good to see her back. I was afraid of the reaction from the public. I am shy with girls.”
Scoop Malinowski · January 22, 2024 at 7:51 pm
Matt, But at his press conference, Carlos had a new answer 🙂 Carlos: Carlos Alcaraz tells us why he didn’t name his favourite players on the WTA: “I was too shy to say it but my favourite player is Raducanu. I watched her first round match, it’s so good to see her back. I was afraid of the reaction from the public. I am shy with girls.”
Scoop Malinowski · January 22, 2024 at 8:04 pm
Next up for Carlos will be Zverev in the QF.
Matt Segel · January 23, 2024 at 1:29 pm
I would have loved this response “I don’t really follow the women’s game. I complete against the men and I only have so much time so when I can watch tennis I watch who I am competing against. Would one ask Michael Jordan which WNBA player he likes watching? Why are you asking me this question? Are you trying to embarrass me?”
But yeah, the shy guy with the supermodel girlfriend is a good play. I mean he is cultivating a nice simple boy image.
He is looking very good so far. Maybe not having Juan Carlos has been good for him.
Scoop Malinowski · January 23, 2024 at 4:03 pm
Matt, back in the 70-80-90s the top ATP guys had zero interest in women’s tennis, some big names openly mocked it. Then it started to change, I think Federer was the first to say he really liked watching Kuznetsova, then a few more followed that political correctness stance. Carlos got caught off guard, he obviously has no interest to watch women play. His handlers made him say Emma is my guess. They will have to start sending ATP players to go watch WTA players in the stands, that’s unlikely tho )
catherine · January 24, 2024 at 9:32 am
Oh so silly. Men won’t be watching women play (unless as coaches) because their games are different and in general they can learn nothing from them. Also I don’t think you’ll find many ATP players caring about PC.
Scoop Malinowski · January 24, 2024 at 9:57 am
Catherine, every single ATP player is extremely careful now after seeing how Sandgren, Isner were attacked for being white conservatives, and other reasons. Nobody says anything controversial anymore, nobody ever says anything like Rios saying about facing Muster on Clay in Rome, “He’ll be lucky to win a game or two off me.” Everybody is totally PC now. Fognini was the last one two say some crazy things like blowing up Wimbledon and a crude remark to the female chair umpire at US Open but he’s muted himself lately. Why is there nothing to be learned by ATP players from watching women play? Su Wei HSieh is back in the mixed final with Jan Zielinski and in the doubles semis with Elise Mertens, she is an inspiration. Raducanu flopped again unfortunately.
Rick Bradley · January 26, 2024 at 12:32 pm
To be honest, I don’t have time to watch enough tennis as it is. The times when I watch some women’s tennis result from the slams and networks forcing it on us when we’re trying to get lucky and tune in a match featuring some of the most elite players to ever weild a racquet. The thingvI notice is, at times, there are patches when top women pros look pretty good, slower though the game is of course. But then a lot of the time they’re just bad. Shockingly bad. Like, unforced errors galore. Missing by two feet. So bad it’s like I wpuldn’t bet against a weekend athlete from the local park at least being competitive and winning a few rallies against any of them. Why watch that? Unless you have a personal attachment to a particular player?
Scoop Malinowski · January 26, 2024 at 5:07 pm
Rick, good points. Ann Grossman, former WTA world no 29 told me this week Steffi, Monica, Martina would destroy Coco, who hits some forehand 25 feet out, those old greats never missed that badly. I agree, most WTA tennis is monotonous, but I love to see Su Wei Hsieh play her magical tennis, just won the mixed and is in the women’s doubles final – at age 38 after taking a year off the year before. She plays a different brand of tennis. Rybakina vs Blinkova was incredible. But too many matches are the same and though they hit the ball so hard, the lack of other skills and variety creativity needs to be addressed.
Sam · January 26, 2024 at 8:17 pm
Matt, But at his press conference, Carlos had a new answer
Yes, Scoop, which was probably fed to him directly by his puppet masters at Nike. 👺
Scoop Malinowski · January 27, 2024 at 7:42 am
For sure, media manipulation process on full display with Carlos.