Zizou Bergs has just completed the biggest win of his career to date, having beaten Carlos Alcaraz in straight sets earlier today.
In all honesty, it was a shockingly routine win for the Belgian, despite having been broken whilst serving for the match.
He was not deterred by this setback, and instead dusted himself off and went on to win the second-set tiebreak with relative ease. It was not a performance that Carlos Alcaraz will look back on with great fondness.
Speaking whilst still on the Shanghai Masters court, he even struggled to find the words.
However, when he did, Bergs was eloquent in explaining exactly what it means to secure a win of this magnitude.
Zizou Bergs reacts after the biggest win of his career vs Carlos Alcaraz
His disbelief was evident from the start of his interview: “It is a little bit of disbelief and not feeling too much. It’s one of the moments where you don’t really realise what is going on; you are really focused on the moment and being focused on the point you have to play.
“I think we are now one minute after the match, so it’s tough to calm down, but I will be very happy!”
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Asked to share what his strategy was for facing a player of Alcaraz’s quality, he continued: “I really tried to play my game. I felt like last week in Tokyo I was in good shape. This week in training, I have been feeling the ball and being aggressive and also serving quite well.
“The percentage is really high in the last matches because we have been working on it, and this gives me a bit of breathing room. If I serve well, we can utilise my returns even more.
“I am happy with how I handled the tiebreak. It’s never easy after getting broken ]while] serving for the match. But to really get back in the tiebreak and play the key moments and serve big, I am happy with that one especially.”
However, perhaps the most intriguing part of Bergs’ speech was his discussion about facing players of this level. Having now played all of Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner and Alcaraz, he revealed that, at times, he has shown too much respect to these superstars.
Wins like this should help shift that mindset, as he added: “It’s nice. This is something that has been very tough for me. I often have too much respect for these guys, which is part of the culture and I appreciate that. But it’s a bit annoying when you have to play them. I had a moment when I was playing against Djokovic here last year, and I was playing the name and not the guy.
“But after you experience it, it becomes a bit more like the new standard on the Tour. So to have this moment is really for me a relief and I feel like I can win against those guys, not just play against them.”
Alcaraz had claimed that he liked the faster courts at the Shanghai Masters, but it was an error-strewn performance from the Spaniard, who hit far more unforced errors than he did winners.
Prior to today, Bergs had never won in any of his meetings against that aforementioned elite trio.
It marks a monumental upset, considering fans had predicted Alcaraz as the outstanding favourite to win the Shanghai Masters before the tournament began.
