Carlos Alcaraz ‘insulted’ Ben Shelton with a gesture that showed his true colors

Alcaraz has the upper hand in this rivalry, winning all three games played. Their last meeting took place at Roland Garros last year in the quarterfinals of the main event. During this match, the Spaniard called a foul, admitting that his hand left the racket after he won a point against Shelton. He subsequently stated: “It’s a shame because it was the ‘hot shot’ of the day.”

The US tennis star reacted to his opponent’s sportsmanship after Alcaraz eventually won the match and the French Open trophy. He said, “I thought it was clean, you know? I thought he was hit by a volley and [then] the racket flew out of his hands.

“I was a little surprised that he said, ‘No, I let go of the racquet and threw it…’ obviously a guy with a lot of sportsmanship.”

Petchey said: “I would like to know if he would have lost the first set, if he would have done that (laughter). No, I think he absolutely, 100 percent would have done it even if he had lost the first set.”

“There are players who wouldn’t have done it and we don’t have video replay here so they would have gotten away with it because the referee didn’t call it at that stage.

“What I found quite interesting was that Ben was almost offended that he was given a point because he also wants to win fair, he doesn’t want to be given a point. When you’re at the top of the game, you really want to win fair. You don’t take points if you know you didn’t win.”

This view of Petchey was ultimately proven wrong after Shelton stated that Alcaraz was “too good.” Shelton is looking to upset and get his first win over Alcaraz in the US Open quarterfinals.