CINCINNATI (AP) — Carlos Álcaraz repeatedly smashed his racket on the court in a rare show of frustration yesterday, and the four-times grand-slam winner fell to Gaël Monfils 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 at the Cincinnati Open.

In a match that was suspended by rain on Thursday night with the players in a second-set tiebreaker, the 37-year-old Monfils advanced by taking the last two sets from the second-seeded Álcaraz, who called the loss his “worst match”.

“I felt like it was the worst match that I’ve ever played on my career,” Álcaraz said. “I’ve been practising really well. I was feeling great. But I couldn’t play. I want to forget it and try to move on to New York.”

Trailing 3-1 in the tiebreaker when the match was halted, Álcaraz was hoping for a reset when play resumed yesterday. But, the No 3 player in the ATP rankings wasn’t able to control his emotions.

“It never happened before because I could control those feelings,” Álcaraz said. “Today I couldn’t. I was feeling that I was not playing any kind of tennis. It was really frustrating for me. At some point, I didn’t want to be on the court any more.”

Álcaraz was playing his first match since earning a silver medal at the Paris Olympics after losing to Novak Djokovic, who also beat him last year in the Cincinnati final.

Monfils, due to play Holger Rune in the next round, is looking to become the oldest men’s quarter-finalist in Cincinnati in the professional era.

The US Open begins in New York on August 26.

In women’s action, top-ranked Iga Swiatek advanced to the quarter-finals with a convincing 6-2, 6-2 win over Marta Kostyuk.

Swiatek bounced back with a more complete performance after losing a second-set tie-break on Wednesday before outlasting France’s Varvara Gracheva.

“Today, I just kept my intensity at a high level all the time,” Swiatek said. “It didn’t really matter to me what the score was, I just wanted to continue playing my game. I focused on myself.”

No 3 Aryna Sabalenka also advanced with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Elina Svitolina, but No 5 Jasmine Paolini, the runner-up at the French Open and Wimbledon, lost to Mirra Andreeva 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Top men to advance included No 1 Jannik Sinner, who got a walkover against Jordan Thompson on his 23rd birthday, No 4 Alex Zverev and No 6 Andrey Rublev.