Daniil Medvedev 's first stint as the world number one has lasted for less than a month after he crashed out of the Indian Wells Masters in the third round.
The Russian tennis ace suffered defeat at the hands of Gael Monfils in California, as the Frenchman came from a set down to secure what in the end was a comfortable victory.
He was helped somewhat by Medvedev, who appeared to let his emotions get the better of him as he was blown away in the third set.
After being broken in the first game of that deciding set, Medvedev took his frustrations out on his racket and smashed it into pieces.
He made such a mess that, after the pair changed ends, Monfils was left to sweep up pieces of plastic from the baseline with a towel.
And Rafael Nadal, who played against the Briton Dan Evans in the match after theirs on Court One, even came across a couple of stray pieces of racket himself.
Perhaps the Russian's frustration had not been helped after he had been caught out by a clever move from Monfils minutes earlier, which had won the second set for the Frenchman.
Monfils, serving to win that set, decided an underarm serve was in order which had so much spin on it it kicked up sideways and forced Medvedev into hitting his return too long.
There was no way back for the now former world No 1 after that outburst, with his opponent controlling much of the rest of the set despite appearing to suffer from a knee injury.
Monfils has been ravaged by problems throughout his career, could be seen holding his left leg and grimacing between points as he battled on.
He will hope the problem will not disrupt his fine start to the 2022 season, which saw him win his 11th tour title in Adelaide and reach the quarter-finals at the Australian Open.
Meanwhile, Medvedev has work to do to become top dog in the men's tennis world again after losing the number one spot.
The 26-year-old, competing as a neutral athlete, needed to reach at least the last eight to maintain his place at the top of the pile.
Now that he has failed to do so, Novak Djokovic will once again wear the crown despite being absent from this tournament due to travel rules preventing him from entering the US because he is unvaccinated against Covid.
