Carlos Alcaraz: First set vs. Jack Draper in Indian Wells 'one of the worst' he's ever played

A shell-shocked Carlos Alcaraz had nothing good to say about his performance against Jack Draper in Saturday's semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open, saying that crippling nervousness was the driver behind a three-set defeat that ended his bid for a historic third straight Indian Wells title.

"This one hurts," the Spaniard confessed after seeing his 16-match winning streak at the ATP Masters 1000 event end. "I don't want to lose any match, but I think this one was even more special to me. It was difficult today, a lot of nerves in the match.

"What could I have done better? Just to play my style and, you know, stepping on the court with less nerves. I think that was a big difference."

Alcaraz looked out-of-sorts for much the one-hour, 44-minute match, despite serving up a second-set bagel. In his post-match press conference, he went so far as to dub the first set against Draper, where he was broken twice, landed just 38% of his first serves and made 13 unforced errors in 23 minutes, "probably one of the worst sets that I have played in my whole career."

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The four-time Grand Slam champion confessed that he couldn't find a way to shake off pre-match nerves, which were evident even in his morning warm-up, and led to an animated conversation with coach Juan Carlos Ferrero that was captured by behind-the scenes broadcast cameras.

"Obviously I wanted to win the third in a row, but, I mean, I can't pretend to win every match," he said. "I am not as upset about not getting the third one in a row. I am upset about myself, about the way that I approached the match, the way that I felt during the whole day, that I couldn't calm down myself. That's, for me, the most disappointed thing that I'm feeling right now."

Alcaraz added that some of his anxiety stemmed from focusing too much on his opponent, whom he said "deserves" the Top 10 debut that will come Monday on the back of reaching his first Masters 1000 final.

"I am happy about him because I didn't doubt about his level," he said.

Q. Do you know why you were so nervous today? Was part of it the fact that you knew you were playing a quality opponent?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Well, I always say that I have to be focused on myself, on my own game. I think today I was more worried about his level, his game, than myself.

So I think that's was a big problem to me, that I was always thinking about his weakness than my best things. So when you're thinking more about the opponent than yourself, then it is a big problem.

So that's what happened today. Since the beginning of the day, since the morning, I was thinking about his game, because he's really tough, he's really solid, and it's going to be a really physical match. So I was thinking all these things since the beginning of the day, and I think that a big problem.

Alcaraz won't have too much time to linger in his disappointment, as the main draw of the second leg of the Sunshine Double in Miami begins on Tuesday. And the world No. 3 is hoping for a repeat of what happened the last time he left Indian Wells without the winner's trophy.

"I consider myself a person who learns from the fails, from the losses," he said. "The last time that I lost here was the semifinal, and after all, I won Miami, so I think I will go for it. I will learn from that match, and I will make the most of myself in Miami."