Why Carlos Alcaraz may have delayed his decision to withdraw from Madrid Open
Carlos Alcaraz may well have known he would not be fit to play in the Madrid Open as early as Monday of this week, but he would have been under pressure to delay the announcement in what was a huge week in his year.
The release of Alcaraz’s much-hyped Netflix documentary was timed to coincide with an appearance at his home Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid, with the umpire’s chairs at the Magic Box venue in the Spanish capital covered in advertising to promote the documentary series that launched on Monday.
Alcaraz’s commercial team are positioning the 21-year-old to be the new face of the men’s game and that mission is already a success, as even though Jannik Sinner is world No 1, his 21-year-old Spanish rival is quite clearly the biggest star of the ATP Tour show.
After picking up the injury that ended his hopes of playing in Madrid during last Sunday’s Barcelona Open final against Holger Rune, Alcaraz is reported to have had a scan on the injury on Monday.
That would have confirmed the extent of the injury, but it would have made no sense for Alcaraz to pull out of the Madrid Open even if he had no chance to play at that point.
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By remaining in the draw until Thursday, the interest around whether he would play in front of his Spanish fans added to the hype around him and the Netflix series, as he attended the official launch of the series on Wednesday.
There were suggestions before the media event to promote the Netflix launch that Alcaraz was almost certain to miss the Madrid Open, but he may have been advised to allow the publicity around his docuseries to dominate the news before he changed the narrative with his injury news.
By the time he confirmed he was out of the tournament on Thursday morning in Spain, it came as no surprise.
“In the Barcelona final I felt something in the left hamstring, I didn’t think that it was that serious,” Alcaraz said. “I’m really disappointed that I’m not able to play here in Madrid. It is a place that I love playing in front of my people, in front of my family, my friends. They are not able to travel so much, so here is a special place for me.
“It was a really difficult situation, really difficult to decide, not [being] able to play. I think it is what it is. Tennis is really a demanding sport. Playing week after week, so many matches in a row and you have to heal your body sometimes and take difficult decisions. I will come back stronger. I will come back with a lot of power for the next tournaments. I’m really disappointed [to] not be playing here in Madrid.”
He went on to suggest that his long run to victory at the Monte Carlo Masters, followed by five more matches in Barcelona, has pushed his body to breaking point.
“It was the first year I went really far in Monte-Carlo but it was also the first year I lost in the first match in Miami, so I had time to prepare for the clay season, but it’s not easy,” added Alcaraz said.
“A different surface, coming from hard court to clay court and playing so many matches in a row and having no time to rest, is not easy. Tennis players have to take difficult decisions sometimes.”
“My plan is to go to Rome. My mindset is to do everything it takes to be 100 per cent for Rome. I will do some tests at the beginning of next week just to see how it’s improved and from that let’s see how it’s going to be in the next days,” Alcaraz said. “My hope is to play in Rome. If not, the next tournament is Roland Garros for me. So I will try to be on court as soon as possible.”
Alcaraz has made the only decision open to him given the injury news he received and the sensible decision may also be to pull out of the Rome Masters at the start of May, when the return of Sinner will be the dominant story.
The bigger priority here has to be Alcaraz’s defence of his Roland Garros title and with an injury of this nature taking around three weeks to heal, the world No 3 should focus all of his efforts on being ready for his first round macth at the French Open.
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