Staff Reporter.
World No 1 Carlos Alcaraz suffered a shock third-round defeat in the Italian Open at the hands of unheralded Hungarian Fabian Marozsan, losing 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) on Monday.
The 20-year-old Spaniard had come into the tournament on the back of wins in Barcelona and Madrid but was outplayed by Marozsan, who is ranked 135th in the world.
Alcaraz said: “He surprised me a lot. His level was really, really high. I’m sure he’s going to break the top 100 very, very soon.”
“I didn’t play really, really well obviously. I couldn’t follow his level. He was at the same level the whole match. That is very, very difficult. He deserves the win. If he plays at that level, he’s going to surprise more than one (player).”
Marozsan, 23, won the final six points of the second-set tiebreaker to hand US Open champion Alcaraz a wake-up call with Roland Garros starting in less than a fortnight.
Speaking on Amazon Prime Video, he said: “I’m very, very happy. I couldn’t imagine this. It was my dream last night. I just beat the world No 1, he’s the best in our sport. Everything was perfect.”
Marozsan, who next plays Borna Coric for a place in the quarterfinals, had not won a match on the ATP Tour prior to the tournament.