Carlos Alcaraz confessed that he thinks he 'didn't play well' in his match against Tommy Paul at the National Bank Canadian Open in Toronto.

World No. 1 Alcaraz struggled a bit at the ATP 1000 event. Even before his ultimate defeat to twelfth seed Paul, the Spaniard had to fight hard to get through his match against Hubert Hurkacz, stating afterward that he didn't know what had happened to his game.

The two-time Grand Slam champion met his match against Paul, who broke Alcaraz in the opening game. After a series of unforced errors and double faults, Paul was able to break the Spaniard twice more to snap his 14-match winning streak, winning 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

Speaking afterwards, Alcaraz admitted that he didn't think he played well, but that he had learned a lot of lessons from the match.

"I realise that I didn’t play well, these matches," he said, before going on to talk about his preparations for the US Open.

"All I can do now is practice to be better. I have some weeks before the US Open.

"But now I have to be focussed on Cincinnati. It’s a Masters 1000. It’s a big tournament as well.

"Obviously, I take a lot of lessons from this tournament," he added.

Furthermore, Alcaraz talked about needing to improve.

"I think I did well some things, but probably everything can be better. I always say you can be better in everything even if you’ve played your best matches in your career.

"But right now, I have to improve a lot of things, getting more confidence in my game."

He also praised his opponent:

"He’s a really solid player. Has great talent, great shots. He’s really, really fast as well.

"So he’s one of the best players in the world right now. There’s no doubt about it.

"He’s really tough on every surface. I mean, he’s a mix of everything. It makes him really, really tough."