Carlos Alcaraz is usually known as a tennis player with an uncanny knack for staying calm and cool, unlike most other 21-year-olds. He’s leveraged his ability to stay relaxed under pressure to win four Grand Slam singles titles, including at the French Open and Wimbledon this year, and then followed that up by winning a silver medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics. He’s also won 15 ATP Tour titles and was the youngest male player to ever achieve the No. 1 ranking in the world.
But every person has a breaking point when they simply need to let their emotions out, and that point happened to Alcaraz on Friday. Playing in his first match since falling to Novak Djokovic in the gold medal match at the Olympics, Alcaraz—the current No. 3 ranked player in the world—took on No. 34 Gail Monfils in the second round of the Cincinnati Open. By virtue of being a top seed, Alcaraz received a first-round bye, but the extra rest didn’t do him any good in southwestern Ohio. The match originally started on Thursday but rain caused the suspension of play, with the match then resuming on Friday. Monfils managed to pull off one of the shockers of this tennis season, defeating the Spaniard 4–6, 7–6 (7–5), 6–4.
Throughout the match, Alcaraz repeatedly displayed his frustration with himself and his play, and even smashed his tennis racket on the hard court at one point, drawing a warning for racket abuse. It was an unfamiliar sight for tennis fans and also an unfamiliar feeling for Alcaraz who said afterward that he simply wasn’t able to control his emotions.
“Some players, during their careers and during certain moments, they can’t control themselves, and it was one of the moments for me.”
In addition to a run to the gold medal match at the Olympics, Alcaraz took part in doubles play at Paris 2024, teaming up with fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal. That team advanced to the quarterfinals, so Alcaraz has played lots of tennis over the last few weeks—so much so that he withdrew from the Canadian Open last weekend, citing fatigue. Perhaps that played a part in his performance on Friday, in what he said was the worst match of his career.
“I felt like it was the worst match that I’ve ever played in my career,” Alcaraz said. “I couldn’t play, honestly.”
“I want to forget it and try to move on to New York.”
The U.S. Open will take place in Queens, New York, and begins on Aug. 26. He won that Grand Slam in 2022, and despite being the No. 1 seed in 2023, fell in the semifinals to Daniil Medvedev, who then lost the final to Djokovic.
The Cincinnati Open was one that Alcaraz previously had success at; he made a run to the final last year, also losing to Djokovic. However, he said this year playing on center court just had a different feeling to it, compared to 2023 and warming up on the side courts this year.
“I felt like it was another sport playing at center court than other courts,” Alcaraz said. “The balls were faster at center court, much more than other courts. I warmed up before the match, and it was a totally different feeling. I don’t know why.”
Being featured on center court at any tennis tournament is something that Alcaraz can expect going forward as one of the faces of the sport. That will especially be true at the U.S. Open, considering other high-profile men’s players who have been fixtures there won’t be playing this year. Nadal has already withdrawn from the tournament—choosing to instead focus on the Laver Cup in September—while former No. 1 player Andy Murray retired at the conclusion of the 2024 Summer Olympics.
While much of the attention on Friday’s match focused on Alcaraz, his opponent Monfils, who turns 38 on Sept. 1, became the second-oldest ATP player to defeat a top-three-ranked player this century. It was the Frenchman’s second top-three win over the last five years and was welcomed after a disappointing Olympics in his home country. The Paris native was eliminated in straight sets in his singles match at the Summer Games while being knocked out in the second round in doubles play.
