Carlos Alcaraz has claimed that his second round exit to Gael Monfils in Cincinnati was the worst match that he has ever played.
The Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion has led by a set and was in a second set tiebreak heading into yesterday’s resumption of his contest with Gael Monfils.
However the Spaniard committed some erratic errors as he lost 4-6 7-6(5) 6-4 to the Frenchman.
It was a frustrating afternoon that saw Alcaraz break his racket in the process as he will now head to the US Open.
Speaking in his press conference Alcaraz claimed that it was the worst match of his career, “I felt I felt like it was the worst match that I ever played on my career. Couldn’t, couldn’t play,” Alcaraz told journalists.
“Honestly, I’ve been practicing really well here in the in this tournament. The previous days, it was, I was feeling great hitting the ball clear, you know, moving well. Probably, I felt like it was another sport, playing the in the center court and the other other, other courts, the balls were faster on the, on the center, bounce, much, much more than than other courts.
“I don’t know I, I don’t know what happened. I don’t know how I felt like, like this way, but honestly, I couldn’t, I couldn’t control myself. I couldn’t be better. So this match, it was impossible to, to win, and that’s all.”
It was a weird match from Alcaraz’s perspective as he never really adapted to the conditions and will now lose a lot of ranking points after reaching the final the previous year.
Speaking on his racket smash Alcaraz felt he couldn’t control his emotions in this moment, “Well I, I, I felt sometimes that I, that I wanted to break the racket. It never happened before, because I could control myself, you know, in those, in those situations, in those feelings,” Alcaraz explained in his press conference.
“You know, most of the time I could control myself, and it could, it could go better in the matches or in the, in, you know, in the situation that I’ve been feeling before. Today, couldn’t, I couldn’t control myself, because, as I said, it was, I was feeling that I, I was not playing any kind of tennis.
“So it was really frustrating for me that is at some point that I want to left the court. I don’t want to be on the court anymore. I think some players, a lot of players, during their careers and during some certain moments they can’t control themselves. And it was one of the moments for me.”
Now Alcaraz will focus on the US Open where he aims to win a fifth Grand Slam title and a second title in New York.
Last year Alcaraz went out in the semi-finals to Daniil Medvedev and now the Spaniard is motivated to re-focus after his recent disappointment, “So I want to, to forget it and try to move on to New York,” Alcaraz said about the future.
“I’ll go, I move to New York, and I’ll try to, to practice well, to get used to those, those courts. And I will forget it this match, because it is, I think it is impossible to get any good things about about this match.”
The US Open starts on the 26th of August with Novak Djokovic as defending champion.
