BBC tennis commentator Andrew Castle bizarrely hit back at Carlos Alcaraz after the Spaniard allegedly was not happy at how his name was being pronounced during his Queen’s Club defeat to home favourite Jack Draper.
The Brit claimed a 7-6, 6-3 victory over the reigning Wimbledon champion, but between points Alcaraz made it known that he was not happy with Castle and Beeb co-commentator John Lloyd deciding against pronouncing his name the correct Spanish way.
Castle referred to Alcaraz as ‘Al-ca-raz’ rather than ‘Al-ca-rath’ and left the 21-year-old frustrated, before the top seed was defeated by the in-form Draper, who is curiously hitting his stride in time for the summer Grand Slam.
But as Castle was made aware of Alcaraz’s complaints, he began ranting about pronunciations in tennis live on air. He started: “Is he (Alcaraz) talking about how he wants his name said? No… if you go on the pronunciation, by the way if anyone’s getting all wound up because we’re saying ‘Al-car-az’ or ‘Al-ca-rath’, here’s the thing: His name is ‘Al-ca-rath but if you go on the pronunciation on the ATP’s website it’s ‘Al-ca-raz’.
“But everyone gets annoyed saying it and if we are going to have to go down that road we are going to have to refer to Bjorn Borg as Bjorn ‘Boyn’, and that’s not going to happen.
“All day long we could worry about these… I mean how would you say the bloke in the third match? Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. I suspect there is one or two different ways to say that… we will call him (Alcaraz) the Spaniard.”
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Andrew Castle responded to complaints about the pronounciation of Carlos Alcaraz’s name.
Castle’s insistence that he is making the right decision, despite technically pronouncing Alcaraz’s name incorrectly, is unlikely to go down well with the world No. 2 ahead of a Major where Castle is likely to commentate over his matches.
And Alcaraz’s frustrations did not end with those in the booth, as he lamented a trialled shot-clock at Queen’s. The ATP have been rolling out a new rule in London where the 25-second clock starts automatically three seconds after the previous point, but Alcaraz thought that it was a “crazy” change.
“I think for the player it is something bad,” Alcaraz said in his post-match press conference. “I finish the point at the net, and I had no time to ask for the balls. It is crazy. I have time just to ask for two balls and no bounces.
“I have never seen something like that in tennis. If you play a long point or finish at the net, you [should] have time just to go for a towel or [do] your routine: ask for, in my case, four balls, I’m concentrating for the next point, just bouncing my bounces, and serve as best as I can.
“Today I felt like I was in a rush all the time. I had no time to bounce and do my routine. Of course it’s something bad for the players.”
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