Carlos Alcaraz shut down claims from the broadcast of his epic Australian Open semi-final against Alex Zverev that he faked his opponent into thinking he was retiring.
A conspiracy raged on social media after replays were shown of Alcaraz’s movement during a changeover in the third set tiebreak, when he was still battling cramps.
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As Alcaraz walked towards the net he appeared to change direction, switching his racquet into his other hand, as if he was about to shake hands and quit the match.
Zverev paused for a moment, seemingly reading Alcaraz’s body language, before they continued onwards.
“When that racquet changes hands and he’s walking to the net, immediately my mind went to: he could be about to retire,” courtside reporter Chris Eubanks said on commentary for ESPN.
“But he pivoted left, changed his whole kind of stride, and you could see Zverev even a bit confused there.”
Meanwhile ESPN’s Pamela Maldonado tweeted: “Alcaraz was about to retire, then at the last second makes the switch.
“In his mind, Carlos said nah, I’m fighting. And then he won. That’s a competitor.”
However Alcaraz explained he never considered quitting the match and he was instead seeing who would walk through the narrow gap between the chair umpire’s podium and the net first.
“I saw the video, and I saw the people talking about it, but there weren’t a single second that I thought about retiring,” Alcaraz said.
“It was about there are sometimes that I just let him, you know, go through before. There are some moments that he let me, you know, go first.
“I mean, that video was who is going to go through first, so that was all.”
Alcaraz will face Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final on Sunday night, seeking his first Melbourne Park title which would make him the youngest man to complete the career slam.