Exclusive: Carlos Alcaraz’s Davis Cup team-mate reacts after US Open winner withdraws

Sam Cooper 11 Sep 2025 2:00 PM

Alcaraz’s Spain lost to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals last year.

Carlos Alcaraz’s Davis Cup team-mate Pedro Martinez has told Tennis365 he “completely understands” the US Open winner missing out on their upcoming qualifier, but said he could have made a “big difference” to their squad.

Having been initially selected to play, Alcaraz announced he would miss Spain’s qualifier against Denmark this weekend after a short turnaround from the Grand Slam in New York.

In his absence, a team of Martinez, Jaume Munar, Roberto Carballés, Pablo Carreño and Marcel Granollers will hope to secure their country’s spot in the finals.

Martinez, speaking exclusively to Tennis365, said they would “love to have him here” but he understood that even players like Alcaraz are not immune to fatigue.

“Carlos can make a big difference on our team or in any other team. He’s a really special player, but I completely understand,” Martinez said. “He had amazing success in New York.

“He played a lot of matches. He has to change from one surface to the other one for sure. He wants to rest a couple of days before heading to the Laver Cup in San Francisco. He’s going to play again on hard court, so I think it doesn’t make that much sense for him to play a week on clay.

“If he could make the effort, for us it would be perfect, but it’s something that I cannot control. We all would love to have him here, but it’s not possible this time. So hopefully he can help us in the future and let’s see if we can make this tie and we can have him in the finals.”

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David Ferrer will soon announce who is playing in which matches, but Martinez said he was “feeling great” ahead of the weekend’s matches.

“We will know this afternoon who’s going to play in singles and doubles,” the 28-year-old said. “It’s going to be a long weekend. We all have to be prepared for that.

“It’s very important, the Davis Cup, even more when we play here in Spain to go through to the finals. And I’m very excited to see if we can win this tie.”

Alcaraz told Cadena SER: “I feel very bad, but I’m on a very demanding tour, both mentally and physically, with a lot of matches, and I don’t have time to get home and prepare in the best way possible for the Davis Cup.

“I think that would be too selfish, and other players can do better than me.

“I need rest to face the rest of the season and, above all, to be mentally calm to assimilate everything I’ve achieved on this tour.”

Spain beat Switzerland in their first qualifier match and should they defeat Denmark, they will play in the Final 8 in Italy between November 18-23.

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