The real reason for Alcaraz's withdrawal in Cincinnati

After the news last night, with the withdrawal of Carlos Alcaraz from the Cincinnati tournament, people immediately thought that the player from Murcia had relapsed or that there was a new issue with his wrist. Nothing could be further from the truth. Everything is going as planned and his intention remains to compete in the US Open.

Speaking with Álvaro Sánchez, a Murcian journalist and friend of Carlitos, we learn firsthand about the current situation of the player from El Palmar. There is no setback that has caused Alcaraz to make the decision to withdraw from Cincinnati; it all responds to a series of timelines that needed to be met which have not been fulfilled. Hence, his withdrawal.

In other words, Carlitos and his team started to work more intensively about two weeks ago. Although Alcaraz has been feeling very good with his wrist and has been making progress each day, to play in Cincinnati, he would have had to travel just these days and enter the competition dynamic when he still needs more training time to recover his wrist.

A clear premise: Alcaraz is not going to rush

After four months off due to injury, Carlitos and his team are not going to rush to play as soon as possible. It makes no sense to have been out for this long only to take a risk now. What Carlitos needs right now is to continue training and gradually increase the intensity. He is working on different aspects of his tennis, such as serving, forehand, backhand, or volleying, and gaining confidence with his right hand.

Álvaro tells us that you can tell Alcaraz is holding back these days while training and that he is still far from his best level. “If we say that Australia or Doha this year is his 100%, I would say he is currently at about 55%,” he states. “To come back, he would want to be close to 85-90%. There’s still time for that,” he adds.

To return for the US Open, which starts on the 30th, Carlitos would need to travel to the United States about 10 days earlier, around the 20th. Murcian media, such as La Verdad, hint at the option of requesting a wildcard for the Winston-Salem tournament, which begins a week earlier. Perhaps this tournament might still be too soon, but it could serve as a good touchstone for building confidence without jumping from 0 to 100 and returning for a Slam.

These next two weeks will be crucial for Carlos Alcaraz, as it remains uncertain as of today whether he will be at the US Open. He wants to and feels capable, but it all depends on how his wrist responds during training these next 10-14 days. If all goes well, Carlitos will be in the United States. The countdown has begun, we just need to find out when and where it ends.

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, El motivo real de la baja de Alcaraz en Cincinnati