‘Impossible’ – Carlos Alcaraz had to make a big decision after his recent injury scare
Carlos Alcaraz thinks he’ll need to take longer breaks from tennis and skip some big tournaments because the schedule is just too busy.
The young Spanish player is back at the US Open in New York after being out for a while with a wrist injury from April. That injury made him miss the rest of the clay-court season and the whole grass-court season. Because of this, Alcaraz couldn’t defend his French Open title in June and had to pull out of Wimbledon, where he was the runner-up last year. He also had to withdraw from the Cincinnati Open last month, even though he planned to use it to get ready for the US Open.
Alcaraz says he will always aim for the biggest titles, but he’s ready to take more time off to avoid getting too tired or hurt. After winning his second-round match at the US Open, he told reporters, “I took more breaks than I wanted, but the calendar is so packed, I don’t want to have to stop because of an injury. In the future, I’ll take longer breaks—maybe one or two months—and miss some tournaments, because it’s impossible to play them all.”
Since last year, most of the big ATP Masters 1000 events have become longer, adding extra pressure on top players. The ATP says it’s up to players to manage their schedules, but Alcaraz thinks the organizers should make the calendar easier for players to handle. “They keep adding more important tournaments, so they’re kind of forcing us to play. We can say no and plan our own calendar, but if we have to play all the mandatory tournaments, we’re playing almost 40 weeks a year,” he explained.
Alcaraz’s injury is not the only one causing problems—his rival Jannik Sinner is also out and missed the US Open. This means the Australian Open was the only Grand Slam this year where both of them played. Alcaraz believes more players will have to miss tournaments unless the number of matches is reduced. “We’re seeing many players get injured and tired. If nothing changes, even more will happen in the future,” he said.
Alcaraz, who is the defending US Open champion, will face China’s Wu Yibing in the third round on Friday. With this win, he became the youngest player to win 16 Grand Slam matches in a row since Rafael Nadal did it in 2008.