Nick Kyrgios has made his big prediction about Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon, after he struggled through his opening-round match vs Fabio Fognini.
Facing the Italian in what had already been outlined as his final-ever appearance at the All-England Club, the two-time defending champion took the early one-set lead that many expected he would.
However, something was amiss, as the 22-year-old made a plethora of uncharacteristic errors which allowed his senior opponent back into the clash.
In the end, Carlos Alcaraz only won the match in the fifth set, making hard work of what should have been a routine triumph.
Nick Kyrgios, unsurprisingly, was a little shocked at such a performance.
Nick Kyrgios speaks about Carlos Alcaraz’s win over Fabio Fognini
Seeking to rate his first-round performance, Kyrgios admitted that it was far from the Spaniard’s best showing.
However, in making that observation, he also offered up a promising prediction for Alcaraz about how the rest of his Wimbledon might fare now that he has got such a poor performance out of his system.
He told talkSPORT: ‘I think Alcaraz slipping through that first round, I think now he is going to really dial in and be very, very hard to beat.
‘I think having a dangerous first round like that for a big player is actually good. It kind of locks them in for the next round.
‘I would not be surprised if whoever plays him next might get absolutely destroyed. We will see about that.’
Nick Kyrgios picked his favourite to win Wimbledon late last month, unsurprisingly settling on one of Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
Patrick Mouratoglou rates Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s Wimbledon matches
Speaking on the same show, Patrick Mouratoglou then weighed in, seeking to assess what were two very polarising performances from the ATP’s world number one and two.
Whilst Sinner strolled to a straight-sets win over Luca Nardi, Alcaraz struggled, dragging his match with Fognini out into five sets and nearly five hours.
Mouratoglou, the current coach of Naomi Osaka, suggested that this perfectly sums up the kind of players they are, claiming: ‘Alcaraz and Sinner, it’s funny the first round is the exact picture of who they are.
‘Sinner destroys the guy and Alcaraz goes five sets. That’s exactly them. Alcaraz cannot focus in every point of every match but when it’s the big matches the level he plays is completely insane.
‘On the other Sinner is just locked in every point, every match from the first of January 1st to December 31st and that is his strength.’
Osaka revealed she plans to talk to Mouratoglou about his conduct, after being asked to comment on his claims about women’s tennis made during the French Open.
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