The Indian Wells Masters, one of the "Sunshine Doubles" in North America, kicked off this week. Spanish all-rounder Alcaraz returned to battle after a ten-day truce to defend his title. As the first Masters of the new season, it is the second time in Alcaraz's career that he can defend his title for three consecutive years (the first was last year's Madrid Masters, where the defending champion Alcaraz was defeated by the Russian golden monkey Rublev in the quarterfinals and missed the third consecutive championship), and it is also the second time in Alcaraz's career that he has been tested by defending his title for three consecutive years on the tour (last year's ATP 500 Barcelona station, Alcaraz failed to participate due to injury and missed the opportunity to defend the title for three consecutive years), The significance of this for Alcaraz cannot be overstated.

But for now, regardless of how Alcaraz will perform at the Indian Wells Masters, let's talk about the question of Alcaraz's need to stay focused.

After losing to Serbian champion Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals of the 2025 Australian Open, Alcaraz made his first career appearance at the ATP 500 in Rotterdam, winning five consecutive matches to win the title and sweep away the gloom of the Australian Open defeat. Alcaraz then went to Doha, which was promoted to the ATP 500 tournament for the first time this year, and is looking to make another big difference. Unexpectedly, in the quarterfinals, Leheczka, a post-00 player from the Czech Republic, was not afraid of strong opponents, dared to fight, and fought hard in the adversity of falling behind 2:4 in the deciding set, and won four games in a row to eliminate the Spanish all-round warrior Alcaraz.

Looking back at this game, the statistics are surprising! Because in the whole game, except for the only break rate lower than that of his opponent, Alcaraz was better than Lehechka in all statistics, but he still lost this match. Alcaraz scored 71 per cent of his first serves, higher than Lehečka's 63 per cent; 74% of first-serve points, higher than 73% of opponents; The second-serve scoring rate is 41%, which is higher than the opponent's 36%; 64.5% of the service won rate, higher than the opponent's 59.4%; The baseline scoring rate is 51.2%, which is higher than the opponent's 35.4%; The scoring rate in front of the net is 75%, which is higher than the opponent's 70.4%; 32 winning points, much higher than the opponent's 18; 25 unforced errors, well below the opponent's 36; The overall scoring rate of 51.2% is also higher than the opponent's 48.8%.

According to the statistics, Alcaraz should have beaten Lehechka, but after 2 hours and 8 minutes, it was Lehechka who had the last laugh, 6:3 3:6 6:4 in three sets. The reason for this is that Alcaraz lost on key points and lost on the huge ups and downs in the concentration of the game.

In the first set, Alcaraz, who served later, took the lead in breaking serve and led Lehechka 2:1, but after that, Alcaraz suddenly lost power, lost four games in a row, fell behind 2:5, and finally lost the first set 3:6. Alcaraz, who woke up like a dream, pulled one back 6-3 in the second set and led Lehechka 4-2 in the deciding set. Seeing that victory was in sight, Alcaraz, who missed a break point in the seventh game, suddenly lost power again, and lost four games in a row, directly burying the match.

In fact, Alcaraz's sudden power outage like this had already happened once in the second round of Doha against Italy's post-00 qualifier Narddi, but it did not cause irreversible results.

Alcaraz beat Naldi 6-1 in the first set and led Naldi 4-1 in the second set, when Alcaraz suddenly lost power and lost five games in a row, giving up the second set to his opponent. Fortunately, Alcaraz regrouped in the deciding set and won 6-3 against Narddi, which did not allow the post-00 player, who had caused a shocking upset in the third round of the Indian Wells Masters last year and eliminated the world No. 1 Djokovic at the time, with a lucky loser ranked 123rd in the world.

Alcaraz's shocking performance, in layman's terms, was a sudden power outage, but in fact, the match was not focused enough, and the ups and downs led to the loss of key points, losing a set, or even losing a match. Many fans and media commented on Alcaraz's embarrassing games: "This is because Alcaraz likes to perform difficult and wonderful shots, and always likes to wave when the score is ahead, and sometimes it is uncontrollable and defeated." ”

Actually, it's not that Alcaraz "likes to perform difficult shots", and it's not that Alcaraz "likes to make waves"! Alcaraz always plays those wonderful and amazing shots in the game, they are all forced by the opponent to fight back, and they are all tenacious and hardworking, where can he like to perform difficult shots? Alcaraz's so-called "wave" was actually caused by a sudden decrease in his concentration in the game, so that his shots either went into the net or out of bounds, and even repeatedly hit the ball on the frame and flew out of the court.

Therefore, Alcaraz's immediate priority is to keep up with his former idol, the retired Spanish god of war Rafael Nadal, and always stay focused on the game. Play every point as if it were the last point, fight for every ball, and never give up. Only in this way can Alcaraz, the talented son of heaven and the all-round warrior of Spain, create more brilliant achievements and set up an admirable monument!

(Source: Tennis Home Author: Colorful Bean Powder)