"I barely practiced 1 hour" - Carlos Alcaraz blames Laver Cup's lack of proper infrastructure for shock Taylor Fritz loss on disappointing Day 2

Carlos Alcaraz suffered a shock loss at the 2025 Laver Cup on Saturday night, losing to Taylor Fritz in a straight-sets drubbing. The loss came as a shock considering the Spaniard's recent form, who had won his last two tournaments on the trot -- the Cincinnati Open and the US Open.

Speaking at his press conference afterwards, Alcaraz shared his discontent with the conditions at the tournament, especially not getting enough courts to practice on.

The World No. 1 pointed out that before other tournaments he played a lot of practice sets in the days before, but could only train for an hour a day in San Franscisco since both teams - 14 players overall - had only one court to contend with.

"I think before a tournament, before the first match you have to practice. You have to play sets. You have to play points. Here, as I said, having just one court to both teams, and we are seven in the team to both teams, I barely practiced one hour per day, which for me I'm not used to do that," Alcaraz said. "I used to practice more and coming to the first match with hours, hours on the court, feeling the ball. You know, I think here the conditions are quite different than we are used to play on the tour," he added.

Alcaraz also played doubles on Day 1 at the Laver Cup, partnering with Jakub Mensik and winning the tie. However, the six-time Slam champion did not think that was enough for him to get in the groove.

"So I just feel like I could have loved to have more time on the court playing singles, because I played doubles, but it's not the same thing. So I prefer to have more time playing singles before coming for the first match," Alcaraz said.

Team Europe last all four matches on Day 2, and saw their 3-1 lead from Day 1 get overturned. Team World now has a 9-3 lead on the final day, and could seal the tie if they win their first two singles battles.

"I felt extra pressure" - Carlos Alcaraz on coming in after losses for Team Europe on Day 2

Laver Cup 2025 - Day 2 - Source: Getty

Carlos Alcaraz also spoke about the pressure he was in coming into the match, as Team Europe had lost the first two singles fixtures of the day. Alexander Zverev went down to Alex de Minaur, while Holger Rune lost to Francisco Cerundolo.

Alcaraz admitted that the two losses put him under extra pressure, making it clear that it was more than the feeling of playing his first singles match since returning to the World No. 1 spot by winning the US Open earlier this month.

"Today I feel like I had to win the point, because the way that the day is going, so with the two loses, I feel like, okay, I had to win my match. It was a little bit of extra pressure, because of the way that the day was going on, but it wasn't because I'm the No. 1 in the world," Alcaraz said. "I think the ranking, it is just a number. It shouldn't give you the pressure that you have to win everything and every match. It's just, okay, I'm there, but you have to still doing the things that you was doing before. But with the two loses, I felt like a little bit of extra pressure," he added.

The World No. 1 is scheduled to take on Cerundolo on Day 3 of the Laver Cup, as the second fixture of the day.

Edited by Shyam Kamal