Most people would agree with Carlos Alcaraz: You don’t need anyone around to see you vomit in the wee hours of the morning.
Alcaraz shooed away one ESPN cameraman in an awkward scene moments before he appeared to vomit early Wednesday morning before the fifth and decisive set of his U.S. Open quarterfinals loss to Ben Shelton — only for another camera to capture him seemingly puking into a towel.
The Spaniard ultimately dropped the final set 7-6 to bow out of his title defense.
“After the third set, physically I was really tired, but I found a way to push myself up and physically giving extra,” Alcaraz said after a four-hour-and-28-minute match. “In the fifth set I just started to feel better and better, but you know, I was playing against one of the — he is a beast.
“Shelton is an unbelievable player, powerful. He just managed how to play really, really well in every situation, so credit to him.”
Alcaraz, 23, and Shelton battled until 3:33 a.m. in Flushing, with the world No. 3 winning the fourth set to set the stage for the dramatic winner-takes-all final round.
Between sets, though, Alcaraz’s stomach did not cooperate.
One cameraman captured Alcaraz pulling out a blue towel while he sat on the bench and he quickly motioned the person away while shaking his head.
Alcaraz repeated this gesture several times and said something before he finally put his head in the towel and appeared to unload mom’s spaghetti into the towel.
Another ESPN camera situated in front of Alcaraz showed his head buried in the towel, while photographers captured Alcaraz standing and seemingly vomiting into the towel.
“We still have a camera guy there, even though he told the other one to go away,” the ESPN broadcaster said while Alcaraz sat on the bench while appearing to vomit. “This did not look great.”
Alcaraz battled through adversity to take Shelton to the limit, but ultimately did not have enough in the tank to advance to the quarterfinals.
The U.S. Open marked Alcaraz’s return to the court after missing four-plus months due to a wrist injury and he performed admirably while attempting to become the first male to repeat since Rodger Federer won five straight championships from 2004-08 and claim his third overall title at the Grand Slam.
“It was close. So I’m just not going to be disappointed about don’t getting the win at the end,” Alcaraz said. “I’m just happy. I’m just proud about myself, about how I fought.”
He added: “I leave the court happy. I leave the court with a smile, healthy, and this is what I needed.”
