Carlos Alcaraz broke his racket on the court in a rare display of irritation on Friday at the Cincinnati Open, when he lost to Gael Monfils 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4.
In a match that was halted by rain on Thursday night with the players in a second-set tiebreaker, the 37-year-old Monfils advanced by capturing the final two sets from the second-seeded Alcaraz, who dubbed the loss his “worst match.”
“I felt like it was the worst match that I’ve ever played on my career,” Alcaraz confessed. “I’ve been doing an excellent job of practicing. I was feeling fantastic. But I couldn’t play. I’d like to forget about it and go on to New York (for the next US Open).
Alcaraz was trailing 3-1 in the tiebreaker when the match was called off, looking for a fresh start when play resumed on Friday. However, the No. 3 player in the Association of Tennis Professionals’ (ATP) World Rankings was unable to manage his emotions.
“It never happened before, because I could control those feelings,” Alcaraz told me. “Today, I could not. I felt like I wasn’t playing any kind of tennis. It was quite frustrating for me. At some point, I didn’t want to play on the court anymore.”
Alcaraz was playing his first match since winning a silver medal at the Paris Summer Olympics and losing in the final against Novak Djokovic, who also defeated him last year in the Cincinnati title match.
Monfils returned to the court on Friday afternoon to face No. 15 seed Holger Rune in the round of 16, but was defeated 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
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