Carlos Alcaraz was stunned in his only match at the Miami Open last year.
Alcaraz is a former champion at the Miami Open, having won his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Florida in 2022.
The Spaniard was one of the favorites to win the Miami Open title again last year, particularly as defending champion and his biggest rival Jannik Sinner was serving a three month ban from tennis.
However, Alcaraz’s hopes of taking advantage of Sinner’s absence quickly came unstuck as he lost his only match in Miami.
David Goffin stunned Carlos Alcaraz at the Miami Open last year
As the second seed at the Miami Open last year, Alcaraz received an automatic bye to the second round of the tournament.
That is where he would play former top 10 player David Goffin, who had come from a set down to win his first round match against Aleksandar Vukic.
Goffin was the world number 55 at the time of this match, with the Belgian and Alcaraz having one win apiece from their two previous meetings.
Despite this, Alcaraz was the clear favorite heading into this match and it was a huge shock when Goffin beat him 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
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There were a lot of questions surrounding Alcaraz after this defeat, and he admitted that it was a ‘very poor performance’ from himself and said that he was mentally ‘screwed’.
“It was a very poor performance on my part, I admit it, he was a better player than me,” Alcaraz said at the time. “I didn’t play well, and I didn’t feel good physically either.
“In these kinds of matches, when you don’t feel that confidence either in terms of tennis skills or physically, everything becomes much harder.
“I believe this was evident in the second and third sets where I couldn’t push myself to produce better tennis. I started playing worse from the beginning, making some mistakes until he broke my serve. Being a break down in the third set made me feel very bad.
“Mentally, I’m screwed, honestly; this is a tournament where I want to do well, and losing in the first round hurts a lot.”
Goffin would lose his following match against Brandon Nakashima, and has been unable to continue his momentum from beating Alcaraz.
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Since beating Alcaraz at the Miami Open last year, Goffin has only won six matches on the main ATP Tour, in comparison to 14 losses.
As a result, Goffin fell outside the top 100 at the end of the 2025 season and things have only gotten worse since then.
Goffin missed the Australian Open this year after struggling with a knee injury, and the 35-year-old did not play his first match until February.
The former world number seven is yet to win a match so far in 2026, with Goffin now on a five-match losing streak.
After losing his only match in Indian Wells qualifying and in the first round of a Challenger tournament in the Dominican Republic, Goffin fell to world number 156, which is his lowest ranking since 2012.
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Goffin was scheduled to return to the Miami Open in the qualifying, but after withdrawing he is now set to fall even further down the rankings.
The six-time ATP title winner is currently at world number 175 in the live ATP rankings, which would be Goffin’s lowest ranking in nearly 15 years.
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