Carlos Alcaraz once 'offended' Ben Shelton by calling a foul on himself during the French Open. The tennis stars will face one another in the quarter-finals of the US Open on Tuesday, with a place in the final four up for grabs.
Alcaraz holds the upper hand in this rivalry, having won all three games they've played. Their most recent meeting came at Roland Garros last year in the quarter-finals of the major tournament.
Alcaraz's sportsmanship at Roland Garros
During this match, the Spaniard called a foul by admitting his hand left his racket after winning a point against Shelton. He stated afterwards: "It's a shame, because it was the 'Hot Shot' of the day."
The American tennis star responded to his opponent's sportsmanship after Alcaraz ultimately won the match and went on to lift the French Open trophy. He said: "I thought it was clean, you know? I thought he hit the volley, and [then] the racket flew out of his hand."
"I was kind of surprised that he was, like, 'No, I let go of the racket and threw it...' obviously a guy with a lot of sportsmanship."
Petchey's take on the incident
But at the time, Mark Petchey claimed that the American was almost 'offended' by Alcaraz's ability to admit the mistake. The ex-tennis star claimed that Shelton wanted to "win fairly" and not be handed a point based on a foul that wasn't spotted.
Petchey said: "I'd like to have known if he lost the first set if he would have (laughter). No, I think he absolutely, 100 per cent would have done it, even if he lost the first set."
"There are players who wouldn't have given that and we don't have video replay here so they would have got away with it because the umpire at that stage hadn't called it."
"What I thought was quite interesting is that Ben was almost getting offended that he was getting given the point because he also wants to win fairly, he doesn't want to be given a point. When you are at the top of the game you do want to win fairly. You will not take points that you know you didn't win."
Upcoming US Open clash
This view from Petchey was ultimately proved wrong after Shelton claimed Alcaraz was "too good." Shelton will hope to cause an upset and get his first win over Alcaraz in the quarter-finals of the US Open.
