Carlos Alcaraz was quite vocal about his unhappiness with the balls being used at the Shanghai Masters, but the man who beat him in the third round says the “balls are in general very good”.

Seven-time Grand Slam winner Alcaraz suffered a shock defeat to Zizou Bergs on Monday as the Belgian claimed the biggest win of his career, beating the reigning Australian Open champion 7-5, 7-6 (7-4).

World No 3 Alcaraz was overheard complaining about the balls during the match as he told his team, “I can’t play like this” and during his post-match press conference he also mentioned that the court felt different from his opening match.

“It’s weird that in just two days it can feel that I can feel the court, feel the conditions way different,” the Spaniard said and later added, “Today the ball was bigger and it was a little bit slower. I don’t know why.”

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But Bergs does not share the 23-year-old’s opinion as the Belgian revealed the same balls were used at the previous tournament, the Japan Open, which was won by Alcaraz as he lifted his first trophy since returning to action after his four-month layoff due to a wrist injury.

“Balls are completely the same obviously as the last tournament. It’s not an issue with the balls,” the world No 39 said. “I do think sometimes there is a little wrong bounce on the court that happens from time to time. It’s definitely there.

“I noticed in the warm-up that this can happen sometimes. Maybe one of the 10 or 20 shots you have it can be a bad bounce. But I think the court and the balls are in general very good.”

For Bergs, beating a player like Alcaraz is one of the highlights of his career and after the match he wrote “what just happened” on the camera.

“You know, Carlos is a hell of a name, and for me it’s been a little struggle,” he explained. “You see these big players on TV, also in the past, you know, [Novak] Djokovic, Rafa [Nadal], you have the chance to play them, and then you can play them, but you also have to be ready to beat them.

“I’ve always been like, Ah, too much respect for them. So that’s why, when it happened, it was more I was so much in the moment still that I hadn’t too much energy to celebrate like crazy. I was just more like, ‘Oh, what the hell’s going on?’ So that’s why I wrote down, like, what happens.”