A sluggish Carlos Alcaraz was beaten 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-4 by Alexander Zverev on the his debut at the ATP Finals on Monday to continue his end-of-year slump with a third straight defeat.<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old world number two, who missed last year’s edition of the season-ending championship due to injury, put the blame for his loss squarely on the fast indoor surface at the cavernous Pala Alpitour in Turin.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know why they put this surface at the end of the year,” the Spaniard said in his post-match news conference.<\/p>\n
“All the tournaments we have played on hard court are so, so, slow and then we come here to the Masters (Cup) and they put this court so, so fast.<\/p>\n
“I don’t understand why they’ve set the speed so high for this tournament when we have never played on a surface like this all year.”<\/p>\n
Alcaraz is looking to become the youngest ATP Finals champion since Pete Sampras in 1991 and, despite the loss, still has a chance to advance to the knockout stages from the round-robin Red Group.<\/p>\n
“This tournament is different for many things, and one of them is that it allows you to go through to the semi-finals despite losing the first match,” Alcaraz posted on Instagram.<\/p>\n
The Spaniard’s next match is on Wednesday against Andrey Rublev, who went down 6-4, 6-2 to Daniil Medvedev in his Red Group opener on Monday.<\/p>\n
The Russian duo were expected to duke it out in another epic showdown after meeting in the final of the Dubai Open and the quarter-finals of the US Open earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Fifth ranked Rublev, however, fell apart after losing the first set and failed to put up much resistance as Medvedev eased to a 7-2 career record in matches against his compatriot.<\/p>\n
“I felt really good and was able to get the upper hand fast,” Medvedev said.<\/p>\n
“I like to play aggressive on my serve, but Rublev plays in such a style that he doesn’t give me any other option because I don’t have the power of Alcaraz or (Stefanos) Tsitsipas on my forehand.”<\/p>\n
The action continues on Tuesday with Tsitsipas taking on Holger Rune, and world number one Novak Djokovic facing Jannik Sinner.<\/p>\n