Carlos Alcaraz health update as rumours swirl over his ATP Finals participation
Speculation has increased that Carlos Alcaraz could withdraw from the remainder of the ATP Finals after the Spaniard was unable to complete a training session.
Following his worrying display against Casper Ruud during his opening match of the season-ending tournament, Alcaraz admitted that he was struggling physically.
The four-time Grand Slam winner – who was under the weather in the build-up to the tournament as he was seen wearing a nose strip – slumped to a shock 6-1, 7-5 defeat in the round-robin stage in Turin on Monday.
After the match, he revealed: “Well, a few days before coming here, I got sick at home. And yeah, the days that I was practising here, I was feeling okay. Not pretty good, but okay.
“I could play. I could feel that I can get into the rallies in the practice. Obviously, in the matches is totally different. But today, I didn’t feel well.
“In this morning, I feel uncomfortable in the stomach. After long rallies today, I couldn’t feel well. I don’t want to, you know, say because I don’t want to sound like an excuse. But if I feel bad, I feel bad. It is what happened today.”
The 21-year-old is due to face Andrey Rublev in his second group match on Wednesday, but his participation in the remainder of the tournament is now highly doubtful as his Tuesday training session lasted only 10 minutes.
Alcaraz took on sparring partner Andres Martin in Turin, but he was clearly struggling throughout the session as he had a tight chest and trouble breathing.
After cancelling the session, the world No 3 has opted to take the rest of the afternoon off and will only decide later if he is to play against Rublev.
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Even Ruud acknowledged after his match against Alcaraz that it was clear he was struggling and he tried to take advantage of the situation.
“I kind of knew he was maybe dealing with a bit of a cold. I saw him sniffling around in the area here, always with a tissue for his nose,” the world No 7 said.
“That’s a sign that maybe physically he won’t be necessarily at 100%. Of course that’s sad and not good for him. But it’s also part of the game.
“I knew it coming in. I tried to make him play rallies and do my best. It’s not easy. When you know someone isn’t 100%, you get stressed. You think ‘Oh, this is a really big chance for me to win.'”
