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RIO DE JANEIRO — Two-time major winner Carlos Alcaraz left the Rio Open after just two games Tuesday after suffering a right ankle injury.
The retirement at 1-1 meant Brazil’s Thiago Monteiro advanced to the second round, where he will face Felipe Meligeni Alves.
Alcaraz twisted his ankle in the first game. He received medical attention and continued to play, breaking Monteiro’s serve to pull level. However, Alcaraz shook his rival’s hand and left the court walking as his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero looked concerned.
“It was the second point of the match,” Monteiro said. “On the court, it didn’t look so serious, but then I saw it in the big screen and it was a bad twist. Now I can only cheer for him to recover, he is a star, a dominant one in the new generation.”
Alcaraz was the runner-up at the clay court tournament in Rio de Janeiro last year, and its winner in 2022.
The injury adds to Alcaraz’s below-par performances at the Argentina Open last week. The 20-year-old, who won the title in 2023, was eliminated by Chile’s Nicolas Jarry in the semifinals in Buenos Aires.
Earlier, three-time major winner Stan Wawrinka was beaten 7-5, 6-4 in the first round by Argentina’s Facundo Diaz Acosta. The 23-year-old Díaz Acosta won his first title on Sunday at the Argentina Open.
The match was delayed for almost two hours due to rain in Rio de Janeiro. Diaz Acosta’s next opponent will be his compatriot Sebastian Baez.
The 38-year-old Wawrinka won the 2014 Australian Open, 2015 French Open and 2016 US Open, where he defeated the world No. 1 player in the final on all three occasions.
Díaz Acosta played in Argentina as a wild-card entry with a career-high ranking of 87. He rose to No. 59 on Monday.
“I had to have a lot of patience because of the rain,” Díaz Acosta said. “Stan is a legend, it was amazing to play against him.”
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