RIO DE JANEIRO — Two-time Grand Slam winner Carlos Alcaraz withdrew from the Rio Open after just two matches on Tuesday after suffering a right ankle injury.
The 1-1 exit meant Brazilian Thiago Monteiro advanced to the second round, where he will face Felipe Meligeni Alves.
Alcaraz sprained his ankle in the first game. He received medical attention and continued playing, breaking Monteiro's serve to equalize. However, Alcaraz shook hands with his rival and walked off the court while his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero seemed concerned.
“It was the second point of the match,” Monteiro said. “On the court it didn't seem so serious, but then I saw it on the big screen and it was a bad turn. Now I can only encourage him to recover, he is a star, a dominant player in the new generation.”
Alcaraz was runner-up in the clay court tournament in Rio de Janeiro last year and winner in 2022.
The injury adds to Alcaraz's poor performances at the Argentina Open last week. The 20-year-old, who won the title in 2023, was eliminated by Chilean Nicolás Jarry in the semi-finals in Buenos Aires.
Previously, three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka was defeated 7-5, 6-4 in the first round by Argentine Facundo Díaz Acosta. Díaz Acosta, 23, won his first title at the Argentina Open on Sunday.
The match was delayed almost two hours due to rain in Rio de Janeiro. Díaz Acosta's next rival will be his compatriot Sebastián Báez.
Wawrinka, 38, won the 2014 Australian Open, the 2015 French Open and the 2016 US Open, where he defeated the world's No. 1 player in the final on all three occasions.
Díaz Acosta played in Argentina as a wild card with a ranking of 87, the highest of his career. He rose to 59th place on Monday.
“I had to be very patient because of the rain,” Díaz Acosta said. “Stan is a legend, it was amazing to play against him.”
