CNN
—
When Carlos Alcaraz suffered a surprise loss to Gaël Monfils in the second round of the Cincinnati Open, he was so frustrated that he slammed his racket onto the court several times in front of the stunned crowd, deforming the frame in the process.
The moment came when Monfils secured a break in the third set on Friday, just before completing his 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 victory over the 21-year-old.
Alcaraz later described it as a brief loss of control during “the worst game I’ve ever played in my career.”
“Sometimes I felt like I wanted to rip the racket,” he told reporters. “That never happened to me before because I was able to control myself in those situations, in those feelings. Most of the time I was able to control myself and things went better in the games or in the situation than I had previously felt.”
“Today I couldn’t control myself because, as I said, I felt like I wasn’t playing tennis at all… I think some players, many players, can’t control themselves at certain moments during their career. And this was one of those moments for me.”
For Monfils, it was his first win against a top-3 player since beating Daniil Medvedev in Indian Wells in March 2022, a success he celebrated with loud cheers and then enjoyed the applause of the crowd.
But Alcaraz made the better start to the match and initially seemed to be on his way to a hard-fought victory when rain stopped play midway through the second set tiebreak on Thursday night when the four-time Grand Slam winner was leading 6-4, 6-6 (1-3).
However, Monfils closed the second set shortly after play resumed on Friday and won the deciding set, fending off all four break points that came his way.
“It was really tough for me. I think it was the worst match I’ve ever played in my career,” Alcaraz said afterwards. “I felt great… I warmed up before the match, but it was a totally different feeling, I don’t know what happened. I couldn’t control my serve… so this match was impossible to win.”
Monfils had to return to the court later that day for his third round match against Holger Rune, where he was defeated 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
