Big surprise in Cincinnati, where Gaël Monfils, 46th in the world, upset 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 Carlos Alcaraz (N.3), finalist of the event last year who broke his racket in anger, Friday in the 2nd round of the Masters 1000.
This is the first time that the 37-year-old Frenchman has managed to beat the 16-year-old Spaniard in three meetings.
As prestigious as his victory is, Monfils will have to quickly turn his attention to his round of 16, since he is scheduled for the end of the day, against the Dane Holger Rune (16th).
Monfils had not beaten a top 3 player since his victory over Daniil Medvedev, then world No. 1 in March 2022. It was in the round of 16 at Indian Wells, before conceding in the following round the first of his two defeats against… Alcaraz, also the winner of their reunion in Miami this year.
The third face-to-face took place in two stages, since their meeting was first interrupted on Thursday evening at the time of the tie-break of the second set due to rain, while the Parisian had a slight advantage (3-1).
An advantage he managed to maintain on Friday to push the match into the third set. Monfils then broke to lead 3-1, just after Alcaraz smashed his racket in anger at having missed an opportunity to do the same. A rare gesture of anger from the Murcian, recent winner of Roland-Garros and Wimbledon.
The Frenchman then remained firmly in the lead to win in 2h30.
Just behind Federer
Enough to become, according to the ATP, the second oldest player to beat a member of the top 3, after Roger Federer, who was 38 when he beat Novak Djokovic at the 2019 Masters.
Just five days ago, Monfils had spoken on his X account about his current difficulties on the courts, in the wake of a first part of the season that was hardly conclusive in terms of results, with two semi-finals reached in Doha in February and in Majorca in June.
“We often share the moments when everything is going well, but it’s also important to recognize when things aren’t going well. I spend a lot of time training, but right now, the feelings and confidence aren’t really there. It’s not easy, but I’m going to keep working hard to get all that back. We’re not giving up.”he had posted.
His determination seems to have paid off, since it was in the wake of this message that the former world No. 6 beat the Australian Alexei Popyrin on Wednesday, who had just won the Masters 1000 in Montreal, before his exploit against Alcaraz.
The latter, who was coming off a silver medal from the Paris Games, where he lost in the final to Novak Djokovic, will have to re-mobilise ten days before the US Open, where he reached the semi-finals last year, after winning in 2022.
In the other matches of the day, world number one Jannik Sinner qualified for the quarter-finals without playing, taking advantage of the withdrawal of Australian Jordan Thompson. He will face Russian Andrey Rublev.
German Alexander Zverev, who beat Spaniard Pablo Carreno 7-5, 7-6 (8/6), will face American Ben Shelton.
