Debating Carlos Alcaraz's Possible Downtime

Jose Morón | 24 Apr 2026 | 22.10

Dealing with the possible downtime of Carlos Alcaraz. Photo: Getty

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It's the news of the year, probably. Carlos Alcaraz announced his withdrawal from Rome and Roland Garros in a statement that does not reveal any information about the exact wrist injury he has. It only talks about being cautious, without knowing when he will return to the courts. What happened leaves us with a scenario of uncertainty ahead.

When will Alcaraz return to the circuit? How long will he be out of the courts? That is the question that is being repeated the most right now, once Carlitos's withdrawal from the second Grand Slam of the season is known. The truth is that it is impossible to give a specific time or speak with certainty about anything, since neither he nor his team have wanted to communicate what type of injury it could be.

And among all the possible wrist injuries, we can only speculate on what it could be and analyze similar cases to establish the time he could be out of the circuit. For example, the closest case we have in Spain is that of Rafa Nadal. The Mallorcan has injured his wrist twice throughout his career.

Rafa Nadal was out for two to three months

In 2014, Rafa injured his right wrist while training. He had a mild detachment of the extensor carpi ulnaris tendon sheath, similar to what happened to Thiem. With physiotherapy, a splint, and rest, Rafa managed to return to the circuit three months later, missing Canada, Toronto, and the US Open, where he was the defending champion in those three tournaments.

In 2016, he had a tenosynovitis of the extensor carpi ulnaris tendon, which helps stabilize the wrist. He withdrew from Roland Garros and Wimbledon and was sidelined for two months until he returned at the Olympics.

In other words, if we refer to this case, along with other tennis players with similar injuries in terms of the area itself, the estimated usual downtime ranges from two to three months, which would mean that Carlos may not be able to return until mid or late June, at best, leaving his presence at Wimbledon uncertain or even extending until August, missing the London Slam as well and possibly returning in the US hard court swing, with the US Open as the main objective, where he is the defending champion.

Trying to figure out when Alcaraz would return to the courts is impossible for one reason: we don't know what injury he has.

Until it is communicated, we can only speculate.

Without mentioning extreme cases, if we refer to what happened to Nadal, for example, the outlook is not so… https://t.co/OsyvlFVylJ pic.twitter.com/apzhM2HTOm
— José Morón (@jmgmoron) April 24, 2026

Playing too much: taking too many risks

The fact that he wanted to play everything on the clay court swing, as he and his team mentioned at the beginning of April, meant that Carlos was taking chances for something like this to happen. We mentioned this well before the start of Monte Carlo, that perhaps the ideal scenario would be to play only one tournament between Monte Carlo and Barcelona, to avoid what happened last year when he reached the final already with physical problems and had to withdraw from Madrid.

While it is unfortunate and entirely beyond his control, perhaps this had to happen to him so that, in the coming years, Alcaraz takes much more care in choosing his calendar wisely. His goal should always be to be best prepared for the Grand Slams. Of course, one can get injured when least expected and in any tournament, but as they say: prevention is better than cure.

In this aspect, Sinner is always very careful about which tournaments he decides to play. He has no qualms about withdrawing from a 500 or a M1000 if he believes his physical condition may be at risk. Carlitos is still very young and has that drive and desire to want to play everything, but in such a demanding circuit as the current one, taking maximum care of your body will give you more chances to win major titles.

The main issue for Alcaraz is that, in his absence, Jannik's chances of winning major titles increase. Without him, Paris could have a new winner, and with Wimbledon just around the corner, a possible absence of Carlos for more than two months would hand Sinner the next two Slams on a silver platter.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, A vueltas con el posible tiempo de baja de Carlos Alcaraz