Carlos Alcaraz might be one of the best tennis players in the world, but he's also human, which means that he loses matches and erupts in anger at times.
One thing that has been consistent with the young generation of players is their affinity for showing emotions. Some of the older generations were raised on the old tennis mantra of being a gentlemanly sport.
Players like John McEnroe and Marat Safin proved that not all truly adopted that stance, but some, like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, have been notoriously committed to professionalism.
Alcaraz is an interesting mix of that school, which makes sense as he idolized both of them in different ways while growing up, and this newer school of players, which is quite open with their emotions.
He's not a player that will erupt often on a tennis court, but he does show emotion. He shows frustration, happiness, and everything in between on the emotions spectrum. At the 2024 Cincinnati Open, he was shockingly overcome by anger in his most recent match against Gael Monfils.
Monfils praised the Spaniard ahead of their match as a player who, in terms of talent, is in the same basket as Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer. He's not wrong in that, but in their match at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Cincinnati, he was able to do something he never did against Djokovic, and that's to win.
Alcaraz didn't have any problems against the Frenchman in the past, beating him both times they played. This time around, it was Monfils' time to shine, and he did. After dropping the first set, Monfils got himself to a tiebreak, taking a 3-1 lead before the match was stopped by rain.
They returned to the court the following day, and the French veteran finished that second set, winning it 7-5. He then took an early break from the Spaniard and held his serve for a 3-1 lead in the third set.
At that moment, Alcaraz became overwhelmed by anger, which prompted him to slam his racket into the court. He utterly destroyed it by hitting it violently several times, and it was quite a scene.
We aren't really used to seeing him do that because he generally doesn't do it. He's come close here and there, but he's never destroyed his racket as severely as he did this time.
He was on a trajectory to lose a match that very few thought he could lose. Alcaraz probably penciled this win over Monfils ahead of the match, as the French veteran hadn't been playing that well lately.
Time will tell if this was lingering frustration from the Paris Olympics, which was another huge letdown for him. The US Open is coming in quickly, so he will need to quickly forget about that, or he will risk having to battle those intrusive thoughts at a time when they're the last thing he needs.
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