Four-time grand slam champion Carlos Alcaraz repeatedly smashed his racquet on the court in a rare show of frustration, and fell to Frenchman Gael Monfils 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 at the Cincinnati Open on Friday.
In a match that was suspended by rain on Thursday night with the players in a second-set tiebreaker, the 37-year-old Monfils advanced by taking the last two sets from the second-seeded Alcaraz, who called the loss his “worst match”.
“I felt like it was the worst match that I’ve ever played in my career,” the 21-year-old, who recently won a singles silver at the Paris Olympics, said. “I’ve been practising really well. I was feeling great. But I couldn’t play. I want to forget it and try to move on to New York.”
The US Open — which Alcaraz won in 2022 for his first grand slam title — begins next Monday.
Trailing 3-1 in the tiebreaker when the match was halted, Alcaraz was hoping for a reset when play resumed on Friday. But, the No. 3 player in the ATP rankings wasn’t able to control his emotions.
“It never happened before, because I could control those feelings,” Alcaraz said. “Today (Friday) I couldn’t. I was feeling that I was not playing any kind of tennis. It was really frustrating for me. At some point, I didn’t want to be on the court anymore.”
Alcaraz was playing his first match since losing the gold medal match in Paris to Novak Djokovic, who also beat him here last year.
Monfils, who returned to the court later on Friday and lost to No. 15 seed Holger Rune 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, called his win over the Spaniard “unexpected to be honest”.
“It was a big win for me against Carlos... To play again in a couple hours against (another) good and younger player, I knew it would be tough,” he added.
Among the women, Aryna Sabalenka advanced with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Elina Svitolina, but No. 5 Jasmine Paolini, the runner-up at the French Open and Wimbledon, lost to Mirra Andreeva 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek also delivered a complete performance to advance to the quarter-finals with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Marta Kostyuk.
At the Paris Games, Swiatek had received an earful from quarter-final opponent Danielle Collins, who had stopped playing because of an injured stomach muscle. The American had told Swiatek “she didn’t have to be insincere about my injury”. The altercation had followed the Pole dropping to her knees and clutching at her midsection after getting hit by a ball.
“There’s a lot that happens on camera. And there are a lot of people with a ton of charisma ... (who) are one way on camera and another way in the locker room... I don’t need the fakeness,” Collins had said at the time.
