Carlos Alcaraz suffered one of his earliest defeats of the season as he was dispatched in the third round of the Shanghai Masters at the hands of Zizou Bergs.
Alcaraz had entered the Shanghai Masters in impressive form, having won the Japan Open title at his previous tournament.
The Spaniard looked set to continue that form when he comprehensively defeated Juan Manuel Cerundolo to set up a third round meeting with Bergs.
However, Alcaraz was far from comfortably against the Belgian throughout the match and he eventually fell to a 7-5, 7-6 to confirm his exit from the penultimate Masters tournament on the ATP Tour.
Alcaraz complained about the Shanghai conditions during the match and that continued in his post-match press conference following his exit.
However, the star then took to Instagram for a far more classy message to the man that became just the fifth man to beat him in the 2026 season.
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Taking to Instagram just hours after suffering the third round defeat, Alcaraz said: “Good luck Zizou Bergs and thank you Shanghai! See you next year.”
Alcaraz was far from happy with his performance against Bergs, which saw him struggle to find any rhythm, and hit several uncharacteristic unforced errors.
Speaking in his press conference after the match, Alcaraz said there were several aspects of his game that worried him currently.
Asked which parts of his game he wasn’t satisfied with, he said: “Well, I would say everything. To be honest, I didn’t play the way that I wanted to play, a lot of mistakes. I didn’t find a good position on the return. For example, I was returning pretty well.
“Today I didn’t find a good one. Obviously credit to him. I would say he serves really, really well. But, you know, when I got into the rhythm, when I got into the point, I made a lot of mistakes. I wasn’t feeling comfortable with the shots.
“So, I’m really disappointed from today’s match, because I didn’t find the solution. I would say I just made a lot of unforced errors.”
Alcaraz will only have a few tournaments left to iron out his mistakes.
He’s set to play the Six Kings Slam in Saudi Arabia next, which begins on October 21st, before heading back to ATP Tour action at the Paris Masters in November.
Following the final Masters tournament of the year, Alcaraz will look to win his first ATP Finals title in Turin, before looking to help Spain win the Davis Cup for the first time in his career in Bologna.
