The soon-to-be world No. 1 lost to a player most tennis fans had probably never even heard of prior to the start of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
In one of the biggest upsets in recent history, world No. 135 Fabian Marozsan stunned Carlos Alcaraz 6-3, 7-6(4) during third-round action on Monday afternoon. Marozsan, who had never played in the main draw of a tour-level tournament prior to this fortnight, pulled off the stunner after one hour and 40 minutes.
“It’s not easy to say something,” Marozsan said. “I’m very, very happy. I couldn’t imagine this. it was my dream last night; now it’s true. I am very, very happy about this. I just tried to do something special, maybe winning a few games or a set or something like this, and now I just beat the [world No. 2].
“I think in the tiebreak it was 1-4 and I won six points in a row. It’s amazing. I don’t know what happened during the points; I just tried to hit back every ball and tried to do my best. I tried to find out how to win points against him in that tough situation, and it just happened. I don’t know what to say.”
Alcaraz will still pass Novak Djokovic for the No. 1 ranking next week and be seeded first at the French Open.
Who is Fabian Marozsan?
Marozsan is a 23-year-old from Hungary. He turned pro in 2017, but Rome is his first-ever appearance in the main draw of an ATP event. His only previous tour-level matches came in Davis Cup (he lost both).
Marozsan, whose career-high ranking is 128th, qualified for the Rome main draw with victories over Timofey Skotov and Felipe Meligeni Alves. Skotov served for the match in their first-round contest and was two points from sending the 6’4” Hungarian out of the tournament almost a week ago.
Prior to beating world No. 67 Corentin Moutet in round one, Marozsan had never defeated anyone in the top 100. He then upset world No. 39 Jiri Lehecka in the second round. Marozsan will be projected to break into the top 100 if he knocks off Borna Coric on Tuesday.
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wowzer
It’s a shock to you but no one else. Plenty saw this coming.
When do I get my justice for having a legitimate opinion?
Was kind of fun watching Alcaraz get drop shotted and out foxed, a taste of the medicine he usually dishes out. He looked slow and lost and Marozan played one of those matches. Will be interesting to see if he can replicate this form.
Margot, great tweet by Andy saying if he doesn’t get a cake the same size, if not bigger, than Alcaraz’s he will be absolutely effing furious…😀
Happy birthday Andy!🎂🎂🎂 ( that’s meant to be a cake emoji, not sure what it is!)
Brilliant Amy! Just love him!
Alcaraz just won back-to-back tournaments and is only 20 years old. He’s a work in progress, has talked about feeling the pressure at times, and is going to be up and down. Not sure why anyone expects him to have the mid-career dominance of Federer/Djokovic/Nadal at this stage. But it also doesn’t mean he’s somehow finished because a hot player beat him on a bad day. It’s happened before. It’ll happen again. He’s still talented and still will be No. 1 going into RG, which was obviously the priority.
As for Marozsan, what a win! Hope he takes it for a little ride up the draw in Rome.
I have to give credit to poster who analysed Alcaraz and his game with great accuracy and to apologise for not remembering his nick, it’s either “anonymous” or “guest” (there are few posters using these nicks and I am rather confused) and who is obviously not his fan like myself.
One word that stuck in my mind is “trickery” in Alcaraz game and I agree very much, I would add “intimidation”, Alcaraz is intimidating his opponents by the way he walks, reacts and generally by his presence and demeanour.
Watching the match that I didn’t intend to watch very late last night couldn’t help but thinking of the way Soderling blew Rafa off the court at FO or Rosol at Wimbledon.
The Hungarian dude, who won $50K prize money in his career, didn’t allowed to be intimidated, he was just smacking deadly FHs left and right and minding his own business, Alcaraz was stunned, his face after the last point says it all.
Congrats to Marozsan, and yes, nice reference to Soderling match vs Rafa…he absolutely did NOT look intimidated. carlos still # 1, and he will stay that way….I pick him to win at RG.