France’s 37-year-old Gael Monfils pulled off a huge upset on Friday at the Cincinnati Open in Mason, Ohio, when he defeated World No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz in a second-round match that started on Thursday.
Rain on Thursday night forced a halt to play, and the unseeded Monfils defeated the second-seeded Alcaraz 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4. The Spaniard was leading 6-4, 6-6 (1-3).
For the ninth time in his career, No. 46 in the world, Monfils overcame a player ranked in the top three; his most recent triumph came in March 2022 in Indian Wells, California, over then-No. 1 Daniil Medvedev.
He had not won against Alcaraz, 21, who took home silver at the Paris Olympics earlier this month and went on to win the French Open and Wimbledon this year, until Friday. This year, Alcaraz experienced only seven losses.
Alcaraz had an overnight edge, but Monfils didn’t let it stop him from winning. In windy conditions, he finished with 15 aces and 30 winners to offset 35 unforced errors and 12 double faults.
Both players struggled to break serves, with Alcaraz converting 1 of 7 and Monfils 1 of 8.
In the second-set tiebreaker, Alcaraz, the 2023 runner-up, attempted to win the match, but Monfils capitalized on his early 3-1 lead to win the second set.
When Alcaraz couldn’t break Monfils’ service at 1-2 in the third set, he destroyed his racket, displaying obvious frustration.
Having played for two days and two hours, Monfils became the second-oldest player to defeat a top-three opponent this century when he prevailed in the match. In the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals, World No. 2 Novak Djokovic lost to 38-year-old Roger Federer.
Due to the delay, Monfils was slated to play Denmark’s 15th-seeded Holger Rune in the third round, so his day wasn’t over yet.
On Friday as well, Australia’s Jordan Thompson was easily defeated by Italy’s top seed, Jannik Sinner, in the third round to advance to the quarterfinals.
After a close match, Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain lost to third-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany 7-5, 7-6 (6). Zverev, the winner of the Cincinnati Open in 2021, became the tenth player in history to make it to the quarterfinals of the ATP Masters 1000.
In the third round, American wild card Brandon Nakashima was defeated 7-6, (5), 6-1 by sixth seed Andrey Rublev of Russia, who went from rough to smooth. Next up, Rublev takes on Sinner after defeating Nakashima in Montreal last week.
Casper Ruud, ranked seventh in Norway, was defeated 6-3, 6-1 by Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada on Friday, preventing him from progressing past the second round.
The Canadian gave an incredible performance. He dominated in wins, going 26-3, and pitched a 14-0 shutout in aces.
Auger-Aliassime faced just one break point to defend, which Ruud won, but he converted five of ten break-point possibilities. Later on Friday, Auger-Aliassime faced Jack Draper of Great Britain in another encounter.
The 12th-seeded American Ben Shelton defeated Fabian Marozsan of Hungary 6-4, 6-3 in the third round to move on to face Zverev.
