Tennis legend McEnroe is highly critical of Alcaraz's Wimbledon debut: "He looked as flat as a pancake."

Carlos Alcaraz has managed to win his first two matches at Wimbledon , where he defends the 2023 and 2024 titles. In the first round he beat Fognini and in the second round Tarvet , thus increasing his winning streak to 20 in a row , the longest mark of his career, and adding 14 consecutive on grass.

Against the 21-year-old Briton, he looked more solid, taking the match in three sets. However, his duel with the Italian was not easy, and he had to go all five sets, giving his all against the 38-year-old veteran.

The Murcian tennis player wasn't happy with his Wimbledon debut against Fognini and knew he had to give more throughout the tournament. There was one tennis legend who has almost always expressed his admiration for Alcaraz, but after watching his duel against the Italian, he showed his most critical side against the Spaniard.

This is John McEnroe , who left this opinion on BBC Sport : "He (Fognini) played very well, Carlos looked as flat as a pancake . Why? I don't know. Maybe he assumed Fognini would collapse easily . His serve was bad. His forehand was bad. For me, watching him play like that was surprising. I have to give Fognini credit in part."

The American was harsh on Alcaraz when analyzing his match: "But he was up a set and 4-2, he should have won the second. He was up 4-2 or 5-3 in the third, and he barely managed to come back from that set. He was defeated in the fourth."

The seven-time Grand Slam winner compared Alcaraz 's hesitant start to his recent ones: " It's a good warning sign for him . He won Queen's, everything was perfect, just like last year. He won Roland-Garros, he played an incredible match, he went partying in Ibiza with his friends, he arrived at Queen's, he almost lost at the beginning, but he won. The preparation is quite similar."

He didn't just want to blame the Spaniard for the close match; he gave Fognini a lot of credit: "It was one of the most interesting first-round matches I've seen , that I can remember right now, here at Wimbledon. I think the conditions contributed to some extent."

Finally, McEnroe praised the Italian again: "Fognini is a guy who is rising to the occasion. He hadn't won a match since the fall, none, and he's losing in the first round at the Challengers. The grass-court season made it seem like he was going to lose the first round in straight sets. But he plays differently than most players; he's old school. He gets the ball early, hits it quite flat and very clean. He was clearly playing well early on and taking advantage of this environment , being able to play on Centre Court at Wimbledon instead of Court 16 or thereabouts."