Carlos Alcaraz faced an unexpected loss in the second round of the 2024 Cincinnati Open, losing out to Gael Monfils in his opener on Friday. The loss was marked by an uncharacteristic display of anger from the Spaniard as he smashed his racket to the ground in pieces midway through the display.
Alcaraz came to Cincinnati on the back of a run to the final at the Paris Olympics, where he missed out on gold to 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic. After skipping the Canadian Open last week, Cincinnati was expected to be the warm-up tournament for the World No. 3 ahead of the US Open later this month.
Taking on Monfils, the No. 2 seed took the opening set 6-4 and appeared on course for a comfortable win. However, the Frenchman turned the tables on him, taking the second set 7-6(5) in the tiebreaker and forcing a decider. With all to play for in the third set, Alcaraz lost a break to fall 1-3 behind, which broke the floodgates in the youngster.
Immediately after getting broken, the 21-year-old took out his frustration on his racket, destroying it with multiple smashes in front of a stunned Cincinnati crowd. From there on, Monfils capitalized on the change in momentum, wrapping up the set 6-4 to reach the Round of 16.
