Carlos Alcaraz was spotted wearing an unusual aid as he battled illness at the ATP Tour Finals in Turin this week.
The four-time Grand Slam champion has been struggling with a respiratory issue at the season-ending event.
This contributed to his round-robin defeat to Casper Ruud in his first match, but he did manage to bounce back to beat Andrey Rublev on Wednesday.
Alcaraz donned a pink nasal strip against Rubelv to help him breathe and seemed to help play his normal game.
He dispatched the Russian 6-3 7-6 (8) to give himself a chance of making the semi-final.
“I surprised myself,” Alcaraz said on the tournament’s official website. “The way that I played today from the baseline, with my serve. I was really calm.
“I just tried to be focused on my game and what I had to do and forget about that I’m not feeling well and that I’m sick.
“Once you step on the court, you have to forget everything, your struggles outside the court and you try to put your focus on hitting a good forehand, a good backhand, and making good tactics against the opponent.
“I thought I did that pretty well and surprised myself.”
Speaking on the aid of the nasal band, he added: “The band-aid helped me to open up and breathe a little better. And above all, I was clear about what I had to play, and that if I lost, nothing would happen.
“I tried to go out and forget that I was sick, accept the situation and find solutions. I had several options to play, the first one was to see how I felt, if I could play long rallies and run normally, and if not I would have changed. But I’m glad I was able to feel great.”
It has been an aid used by the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and famously Robbie Fowler in the past, while in the tennis world Nicolas Jarry also likes to wear one.
“I know Nico wears that thing on his nose. It helped me a lot. I could breathe much better,” Alcaraz said.
“It’s something I’m going to wear more often. I’m sure in the next match I’m going to wear it, and in training. I was able to recover better between rallies.”
World number three Alcaraz will take on Alexander Zverev on Thursday knowing realistically only a victory will send him through to the semi-final stage.
Zverev is all-but guaranteed a place in the last four after he beat sixth seed Ruud 7-6 (3) 6-3.
