The 37-year-old French opponent Gael Monfils, a formidable opponent for any young gun with two decades of experience in the game, proved too formidable for the reigning Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion, as per AFP.
“It was the worst match that I ever played in my career,” Alcaraz said. “I couldn’t play.
“I don’t know what happened. Honestly, I couldn’t, I couldn’t control myself. I couldn’t be better. It was impossible to win, and that’s all.”
The Spaniard added: “I came here thinking I’m going to feel good. I’m going to put in a good tennis, because I know how to play on this court.”
Alcaraz claimed that this match was the first time he had ever broken a racquet out of rage.
The 2023 Cincinnati runner-up and current ATP number three is without a hardcourt victory going into next Monday’s US Open, having only played one second-round summer cement match thus far.
“It’s really difficult to find some goodstuffs from this match — I want to forget it and try to move on to New York,” he said.
“I’ll try to practice well, to get used to those courts. And I will forget this match.”
As the disgruntled number two seed was furious with his performance and would sometimes yell at his group, world number one Jannik Sinner quietly celebrated turning twenty-three, with a walkover as a gift from fate.
Due to a rib injury, the Australian opponent Jordan Thompson withdrew prior to their match, allowing the Italian to proceed through to the quarterfinals with ease.
The quarterfinal match that Sinner lost to Andrey Rublev in Canada last week will be rematched. After a rain-shortened encounter, the Russian defeated Brandon Nakashima 7-6 (7/5), 6-1.
Alexander Zverev, the fifth seed, defeated Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 7-5, 7-6 (8/6), advancing him to the round of eight.
Felix Auger-Aliassime defeated seventh seed Casper Ruud 6-3, 6-1 in 68 minutes, extending the Norwegian’s bad run of play. The Canadian hit 14 aces in the victory.
Iga Swiatek, the top-seeded woman, easily defeated Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the quarterfinals for the second time this season.
The Pole is currently 3-0 in the rivalry without dropping a set after backing up her victory against the Ukrainian at Indian Wells in March of last year.
Swiatek entered the court without following her customary warm-up regimen due to the rainy morning, but she appeared unaffected.
After having to battle through three sets to defeat Varvara Gracheva in the previous round, Swiatek was able to wrap up the match with ease.
In thirty-one minutes, Swiatek won the first set, and she breezed through the second.
“I’m happy that I kept my intensity, in the first match, it got a little bit down,” Swiatek said. “But I was ready in every game.
“I’m happy I was solid. I was disciplined with all the things that I wanted to take care of.”
The number one added: “I don’t really care what my result is going to be here, just trying to do the work.”
In her fourth quarterfinal at Cincinnati, third seed and three-time semifinalist Aryna Sabalenka defeated Monfils’s wife, Elina Svitolina, 7-5, 6-2.
The sixth seed Jessica Pegula defeated 2023 runner-up Karolina Muchova 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 in a postponed second-round match.
Mother of two Caroline Wozniacki lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-4 while continuing her WTA comeback attempt.
Magdalena Frech of Poland lost to Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen 6-1, 7-5. Teenage Mirra Andreeva defeated Jasmine Paolini, the finalist from Italy at Wimbledon, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
