World No. 3 on the tennis court and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz let his emotions run wild during the Cincinnati Open, the last ATP tournament before the US Open in New York.
Alcaraz’s match against Gael Monfils was postponed after rain fell in southern Ohio on Thursday, but rain resumed Friday afternoon.
After winning the first set 6-4, Alcaraz lost a tiebreak in the second set, forcing him to play a deciding third set.
In the final set they were down 2-1, but Monfils held his serve, causing Alcaraz to go completely crazy and break his racket several times on the court.
This led to a violation of the rules due to racket misuse and resulted in a point in the match from which the Spaniard was unable to recover.
Carlos Alcaraz breaks his racket during his match against Frenchman Gael Monfils
This was the ninth time in Monfils’ career that he defeated a top-three opponent
Ultimately, the unseeded Monfils defeated the second-seeded Alcaraz 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.
Monfils, ranked No. 46 in the world, defeated a top-three opponent for the ninth time in his career, most recently over then-No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in March 2022 in Indian Wells, California.
Until Friday, he had not won against Alcaraz, 21, who has won the French Open and Wimbledon this year and won a silver medal at the Paris Olympics earlier this month. Alcaraz had lost just seven matches this year.
Monfils didn’t let Alcaraz’s overnight advantage get in the way of victory, finishing with 15 aces and 30 winners to counter 35 unforced errors and 12 double faults in windy conditions.
Neither player had much success breaking serve, with Monfils converting 1 of 8 and Alcaraz 1 of 7.
When Monfils won the two-hour, 30-minute match (over two days), he became the second-oldest player to defeat a top-three opponent this century. Roger Federer, 38, defeated world No. 2 Novak Djokovic at the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals.
Monfils was not done for the day yet, as the postponement meant he had to face the 15th-seeded Dane Holger Rune in the third round.