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via Imago

via Imago

This time it’s Carlos Alcaraz vs. fans! While the young Spaniard has a dedicated fanbase that has always supported him through the ups and downs, his recent take on choosing Coco Gauff for being a mentally strong player might have created a problem for him.

Recently, the three-time Grand Slam champion’s video was shared by the Cinch Championship’s official page. In the clip, the world number one was choosing the special qualities of different players to build up a perfect competitor for Wimbledon. Along with that, the caption reads, “Our No.1 seed @carlosalcaraz builds his perfect @Wimbledon player.”

In that video, there were six categories that the 21-year-old tennis player had to fill with his choice. For forehand, he chose Stefanos Tsitsipas, for a powerful touch, he went with Ons Jabeur. In a similar way, for serve, he chose Rafael Nadal, and for backhand, he picked Elina Svitolina.

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However, his choice of putting the 20-year-old WTA star in the mentality category grabbed a lot of eyes. While you might have thought that the US Open champion was quite fit for a player at Wimbledon, fans were not happy with that.

Since going professional as a young kid in 2018, Coco Gauff has been progressively making a reputation for herself. The Florida native’s rise reached her peak in the 2023 season, when she experienced a pivotal event. Gauff gives credit to her mentality as much as her unwavering work ethic and natural talent for her success on the professional circuit.

In a recent interview, she disclosed, “I have a crazy belief system. I really believe I can do everything. If you told me, ‘You can’t fly,’ I would say, ‘Just watch me.’” While the American tennis player herself believes in the metal game, fans trolled Alcaraz for his choice.

Fans troll Carlos Alcaraz for picking Coco Gauff’s mentality

Even though, when it comes to handling negative thoughts on social media or dealing with a lot of troublesome aspects of the game, Gauff has her own fan following. But many have questioned Alcaraz over his choice of Gauff mentality, for a perfect Wimbledon champion.

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A fan vented out his frustration and wrote, “Coco mentality, Carlos for God’s sake.” On the other hand, another tagged the young American tennis player, going hand in hand with mentality, and mentioned it as a “disaster.”

Interestingly, Gauff could have gone to other sections on Alcaraz’s screen. While the American’s serve leaves much to be desired, as has been pointed out by tennis pundits over and over again this year, Gauff’s backhand is still fearsome. Amid this discussion, a fan came forward to talk about how there were different choices for the US Open champion that would have been chosen from the categories, “Would’ve picked BH/serve for Coco but okayyy.” 

The WTA World No. 2 actually draws inspiration from the previous ATP World No. 1, Novak Djokovic. Discussing Chris Evert at the Miami Open this year, Gauff spoke in a post-match conference, “I wouldn’t say I modeled my backhand after hers. Well, my team tried, then I tried to model it after Novak Djokovic a lot. That’s where that inspiration comes from.”

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Subsequently, the comments went on, and another one wrote, “Coco mentality?????” highlighting how they have no words to explain the choice. But at the same time, another fan came forward and talked about how the mentality choice could have been made better by picking Nadal for it, “Lmao I bet he was stuck and wished he hadn’t put Gauff for mentality when Rafa came up.”

Nevertheless, what are your thoughts on Alcaraz’s random picks for a perfect Wimbledon player? Do let us know in the comment section below.