Carlos Alcaraz drew criticism for breaking his tennis racket in frustration during his second-round loss to Gael Monfils at the Cincinnati Open. In other news, Former Russian tennis pro Yevgeny Kafelnikov faced backlash after criticizing Iga Swiatek’s complaints about the grueling WTA schedule.
Meanwhile, Chair umpire Greg Allensworth came under fire for his back-to-back controversial calls during the Cincinnati Open. Cincinnati Open slammed for its poor crowd management after heckler disrupts Jordan Thompson and Ugo Humbert’s first-round match.
Also, CoCo Vandeweghe received backlash for her remarks about Iga Swiatek’s “tactics” to disrupt opponents’ momentum during matches. Amanda Anisimova also silenced an online troll after an “overweight” comment.
On that note, here’s a recap of the top controversies from last week:
Carlos Alcaraz faced criticism for smashing his racket in frustration during the Cincinnati Open 2R loss
Carlos Alcaraz received flak for letting out his frustration on his racket during a 6-4, 6-7(5), 4-6 defeat to Gael Monfils in the 2024 Cincinnati Open second round. In the third set, after losing a break to fall behind 1-3, Alcaraz angrily smashed his racket multiple times on the court.
Following his emotional outburst, Alcaraz apologized on X (previously Twitter) and confessed that his conduct was “not correct.” The Spanish tennis star also pledged to prevent such occurrences in the future and shared his anticipation for the forthcoming US Open.
“I apologize because my attitude yesterday was not correct and it is something that should not be done on the track. I am a human, I had a lot of nerves inside and sometimes it is very difficult to control yourself when your heart rate is so high. I will work so that it doesn’t happen again. Time to think about NYC!” the 21-year-old wrote (translated from Spanish).
