Li Tu’s first-round U.S. Open match pitted him against one of tennis’s premier players.
But it was only right before he took on Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday night that he realized just how much of a “beast” the world No. 3 men’s tennis player is.
Tu put up a fight in a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 loss — winning one set — at Arthur Ashe Stadium, but he told ESPN after the match about what seeing Alcaraz up close and personal was like before they faced off in Flushing.
“Look, I’m not going to lie, he came out and he’s in his jacket and I’m like, ‘OK,’” Tu recalled on the set between the venues at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center. “We go to the coin toss, and he took his jacket off, and I was like, ‘Dude, this guy is a specimen.’ From the coin toss, from the coin toss. I was like ‘This guy is a beast.’
“I couldn’t stop looking at his shoulder definition and the veins. And the forehand says it, he has some serious weaponry. Hats off to him.”
It wasn’t the only thing Tu got a kick of on Tuesday night, either.
In the second set, the one the Australian won, he tried an underhanded serve that barely hit the net, leading to some gasps from the crowd.
Tu, however, chuckled at himself for the attempt gone wrong.
The way Tu even found out he was facing Alcaraz in the main draw as a U.S. Open qualifier was quite humorous.
Tu told Sky Sports that he found out he was taking on the former world No. 1 via an Instagram direct message from a fan.
“I just read it and I was like no way!” Tu said with a big smile.
This year’s U.S. Open was the second grand slam that Tu competed in after he made the 2021 Australian Open as a wild card.
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