Troubles are piling up for Carlos Alcaraz one month before the start of Roland-Garros. Beaten in the final in Monte-Carlo by Jannik Sinner, who will seek to have a season on clay like no other, the Spaniard announced on Wednesday that he was withdrawing from the ATP 500 tournament in Barcelona due to wrist pain felt when he entered the competition on Tuesday.
“I’m not going to be able to continue in this tournament. As you saw, yesterday during the match I felt that my wrist had given way and the pain only increased little by little,” he declared at a press conference. Finalist in Monte-Carlo on Sunday, he reached the first round in Barcelona on Tuesday against the Finn Otto Virtanen 6-4, 6-2. However, he had to call the physiotherapist during the first round to have his painful wrist manipulated.
Never quiet before Roland-Garros
“It’s a more serious injury than we expected, and I have to listen to my body. It is with great sadness that I have to return home, to be in the best physical condition as quickly as possible,” he detailed.
The 22-year-old Spaniard, who has just ceded his first place in the world to his Italian rival Jannik Sinner, is uncertain for the Masters 1000 in Madrid next week, less than a month before Roland-Garros. In addition, his withdrawal from Barcelona, a tournament where he reached the final last year, will allow Sinner to increase his lead at the top of the ATP rankings. And casually, this is the fifth consecutive year that Alcaraz cannot play all the tournaments on clay, his favorite surface, before Roland-Garros.
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