French Open: Carlos Alcaraz demolition was ‘borderline embarrassing’ for Stefanos Tsitsipas, says Tim Henman

Carlos Alcaraz shone under the lights against Stefanos Tsitsipas at the French Open on Tuesday night, and Tim Henman felt it was “borderline embarrassing” how average Alcaraz made the Greek look during the pair’s one-sided quarter-final.

Reacting to Alcaraz’s performance afterwards in The Cube for Eurosport, Barbara Schett, Tim Henman and Mats Wilander were all somewhat lost for words at what they had just seen.

Henman was particularly struggling to understand how wide the chasm had been between Alcaraz and world No. 5 Tsitsipas.

“I think sometimes when you see these great players in the early rounds of Grand Slams, yes there can be a big gulf in the level, the quality, the ability of players,” Henman, a former Roland-Garros semi-finalist, began.

“But Tsitsipas is five in the world, he’s won Masters 1000s, we’re talking about him [potentially] being a Grand Slam champion.

“And for those first two and a half sets it was borderline embarrassing how average Alcaraz was making Tsitsipas look.

“Tsitsipas was looking to try and implement his game plan, but he wasn’t allowed – there was just no area of Alcaraz’s game that he could attack.”

Wilander had been courtside for the match, and compared the atmosphere to something akin to a rock concert.

“I feel like I’m at a Rolling Stones concert, nobody wants to go home!” the Swedish three-time winner of Roland-Garros said.

“Everybody’s just hanging around, it’s an amazing atmosphere.

“Sitting watching him live, it’s absolutely incredible. He plays normal tennis, then suddenly he comes from nowhere and he runs around and smacks the forehand so hard – it’s nearly a lack of respect for the game itself.

“I’m not speechless often, but you can’t play tennis this way, you really can’t.”

Alcaraz takes on Djokovic on Friday, with the other men’s semi-final lineup to be known following Wednesday’s two remaining quarter-finals, which see Alexander Zverev face Tomas Etcheverry, and Holger Rune play Casper Ruud.

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