Carlos Alcaraz suffered another early exit at the Shanghai Masters as he was beaten in straight sets by Zizou Bergs in the third round.
Alcaraz has played the Chinese Masters tournament three times in his career now, and his best effort is a sole quarterfinal appearance in 2024.
The Spaniard has a 67% winning percentage at the Shanghai Masters, which makes it statistically his third-worst performing Masters event out of the nine on the ATP Tour.
He is not alone, however, as Rafael Nadal also struggled at the Chinese Masters event.
Nadal played the Shanghai Masters nine times in his career and failed to win the event even once.
The star reached the final on two occasions, but it remained one of three Masters tournaments the King of Clay never lifted once he hung up his racket in 2024, along with the Paris Masters and the Miami Open.
Nadal and Alcaraz share similar career DNA in that they do not play their best tennis at the end of the season.
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Alcaraz is still yet to win the Shanghai Masters, the Paris Masters, and the ATP Finals, which are three events Nadal never managed to win in his career either.
Nadal’s issues at the end of the season are exactly the same as Alcaraz’s.
Both Alcaraz, and Nadal when he was playing, struggled at the indoor events at the end of the season. It’s quite mystifying that Nadal never claimed an ATP Finals in his career, but Alcaraz could be on his way to the same difficult record.
Speaking at the end of his playing career, Nadal addressed his issues with playing indoor events.
“I play less indoors if we compare to outdoors in my tennis career but at the same time it is true what you say. There are reasons, the indoors is not an ideal surface for my tennis since the beginning of my career, the last couple of years has been better than the beginning of my career without a doubt but that’s the numbers and I can’t say something different.”
Alcaraz, meanwhile, suggested largely the same as Nadal when it comes to playing indoors.
At the ATP Finals last year, Alcaraz said: “I have no experience playing on indoor courts. I could practice a lot on indoor courts, but I don’t have matches in my back on indoor courts. So I don’t know. I have to be better on this part of the year that we play on indoor courts.”
Alcaraz, of course, still has time to find his groove at the end of the ATP Tour season, but it’s fascinating that he is falling into the same issues as Nadal.
