Sure, the defending champion’s victory against Tomas Etcheverry was marred by errors, but that didn’t stop Carlos Alcaraz from maintaining his infectious smile. While that showed his fun, calm side, it also masked a fiery temper he recently admitted to battling.

Even though the Spaniard is through to the quarterfinals of the Monte-Carlo Masters, it was hard to watch the world No. 1 commit 23 unforced errors in the second set, which resulted in the Argentine sealing it 6–4. However, even after hitting every other ball into the net or out of bounds, he seemed joyous. And when asked whether that demeanor came naturally to him or was something he had worked on over the years, his answer was simple.

“First of all, I just want to thank you for that. I’ll tell my coach you mentioned it. It’s something I work on because when I was younger, if I missed a shot, I would yell. Sometimes I’d throw my racket. I would just fill my mind with negative thoughts all the time, and those negative thoughts would probably last a game, two games, in my head,” Alcaraz said on We Love Tennis.

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That description is not how the world typically sees Alcaraz today. Instead, it’s the version of him who misses an easy volley, takes a moment to shake his head, and then wins the next five points. It’s the result of something he and his team recognized and worked on.

“We realized how important it is to fill your mind with really positive things all the time. Even when things aren’t going well, or even if you’re not feeling good on the ball or you’re missing a lot of shots, the more you fill your mind with positive thoughts, the faster things will get better,” the 22-year-old added.

This mental framework has been visible all season.

Earlier this year at Doha, Alcaraz wasted a 3-0 second-set lead against Andrey Rublev and had three match points before finally closing out on his sixth. Throughout all that, he never broke. He dealt with it and addressed it afterwards: 

“If you want to find a solution to a problem, you should find it in a calm place. When I am playing and getting mad, that is not the place you will find solutions.”

Eventually, he went on to win the title.

“If I miss an easy shot, I try to understand what happened and think about how I could have done better, then I focus on the next point, and I try to do that throughout the match,” he concluded, and that too with a smile on his face.

It is a process that mirrors what the sport’s great champions have described over the ages: analyze briefly, reset, and move ahead. 

Now that the Monte-Carlo Masters is underway, the world No. 1 already has plenty to consider. He will have a massive 4,330 ranking points to defend during the clay-court swing, and Jannik Sinner is breathing down his neck anew. Additionally, the memory of back-to-back losses at the Sunshine Double is still fresh. But all that does not appear to show on his face when he takes to court. The smile stays, and body language remains calm. 

And that brings us to a sneak peek of when Alcaraz showed human emotions on the court, letting out his frustration.

Carlos Alcaraz has had his own moments of frustration on court

Alcaraz’s composure has not always been immune to the kind of on-court meltdowns he was trying to move past. One of the most prominent examples came at the 2024 Cincinnati Open, which he himself dubbed the “worst match” of his career.

In the second round against Gael Monfils, Alcaraz imploded in a manner that stunned the tennis world, as he broke his racket several times on the court, unable to get his way out of a third set. However, he issued a public apology later, admitting that his attitude was “not correct” and that he still had to control his emotions when his heart rate was high, and he was going through it.

That Cincinnati moment now feels like a distant chapter from the past, a before-and-after moment in the mental growth he has spoken about so frankly at Monte-Carlo. This presents a certain irony for his upcoming quarterfinal opponent.

Alexander Bublik is waiting for the top seed in the last eight. He is a player known for breaking rackets; in fact, he would require a special statistician to keep track of his broken rackets. One of the most flamboyant personalities on the tour, the world No. 11 is equally likely to deliver a tweener and a full racket slam in a single game.

The 28-year-old has yet to lose a set in Monaco. He beat Monfils 6-4, 6-4 in the Round of 32 and then swept away Jiri Lehecka 6-2, 7-5 in the Round of 16. 

The quarterfinal on Friday will be the first time the two meet on the ATP Tour. Alcaraz has a 19-2 record in 2026 and a 165-36 career record on clay, and Bublik has demonstrated a 7-7 career record against top-10 opponents, which shows that he is competitive enough to make this anything but routine.

Who do you think will grab a spot in the semifinals?