Carlos Alcaraz has revealed that he experienced “intrusive thoughts” during his difficult four-and-a-half month stint on the sidelines. The world No. 3 has been out of competition since mid-April due to a wrist injury, and had to forego his French Open title defence and miss Wimbledon.
Return at the US Open
The Spaniard is now back in action at the US Open, where he is the defending champion, and will jump into the deep end by playing best-of-five set matches immediately in his comeback. While Alcaraz is finally making his comeback, Jannik Sinner has withdrawn due to a knee injury, and the reigning champ sent a message to his rival.
Alcaraz was very cautious when he initially injured his wrist at the Barcelona Open in April. He pulled out of both Roland Garros and Wimbledon well in advance and started wearing a protective cast for the first few weeks.
Difficult months on the sidelines
He then skipped the Masters 1000 in Montreal, but had hopes of making his comeback at the Cincinnati Open to get some best-of-three set matches under his belt ahead of the US Open. However, Alcaraz also had to miss the Masters event in Cincinnati before he finally confirmed his comeback in Flushing Meadows.
The world No. 3 has already been out on court, playing a couple of mixed doubles matches with Serena Williams before they lost in the quarter-finals, but those used shorter, fast-4 scoring. And ahead of his singles comeback, Alcaraz shed light on his difficult few months on the sidelines.
“The first month was kind of difficult for me, because I couldn't do anything with my right arm. It was tough. But at the same time, I enjoyed my time. I enjoyed my time with family, with friends, staying at home,” the seven-time Major winner explained.
Message to Jannik Sinner
“But once I started to practice a little bit, that I didn't know when I'm gonna start, that thoughts are really difficult to deal with, because I don't know if I'm gonna be ready for Cincinnati, for US Open, or I'm gonna miss the whole American swing.
“So that thoughts were really difficult to deal with. But finally, here we are. My goal was try to be healthy as soon as possible and try not to miss more competitions. So I would say that intrusive thoughts were the most difficult things to deal with in this process.”
Now that Alcaraz is back, Sinner is the one who has been forced to the sidelines by a knee issue. The next possible time they could both compete in the same event would be in October at the Shanghai Masters, and the Spanish star admitted it was “strange” not to see his rival for so long.
“It's kind of weird. We are not gonna see each other for, like, six months now, seven months. So it's kind of a weird situation, to be honest,” he said. “But I just wish him all the best. Hopefully a really great recovery and see him back on court at his best once again.”
