There is a growing sense of concern around Carlos Alcaraz’s injury, as speculation builds over just how serious his latest setback might be.
After pulling out of the Barcelona Open halfway through, he’s now also ruled himself out of both Madrid and the Italian Open. That has people starting to wonder if this could keep him from playing at Roland Garros.
If he can’t make it, it would mean missing the chance to defend his title and falling further behind Jannik Sinner in the race for world number one.
Andy Roddick has already commented on the injury after seeing photos of Alcaraz wearing a cast. Now, Brad Gilbert and CoCo Vandeweghe have weighed in as well.
Gilbert opened with: “Carlos said that he has got to listen to his medical team and not rush back.”
He pointed to recent examples, saying: “They could just look to a few years ago, to Dominic Thiem, when he had the wrist injury. He never was the same.
“Del Po you could argue was never the same. He hurt both wrists. Andre Agassi, I started coaching him in 1994, when he was just coming off the wrist surgery from 1993 and he told me he did it on one shot, big serve, he caught it late, instantly felt it and got a couple of scans and got the surgery.”
Looking ahead to how long Alcaraz might be out, Gilbert added: “I am guessing it will be a minimum of three weeks off. Looks at the scan again and that’s before he even hits any balls.
“I think they are going to err on the side of caution because the last thing they want to do is rush it.”
While Alcaraz has a more immediate and important decision to make about his Roland Garros participation, this whole saga should certainly inform his thinking going forward.
After all, this is the second straight year where the Spaniard has rushed from Monte Carlo to Barcelona and injured himself.
Therefore, the solution for 2027 is simple. He must skip this first event of the year in his home country.
By rushing to Barcelona, Alcaraz ends up missing Madrid anyway, which is the far bigger of the two Spanish events, and thus completely disrupts his clay-court season by forcing himself to recover from injury.
The smart decision, and one he must make next year, is to play Monte Carlo, skip Barcelona, and return to Madrid refreshed after a week of relaxation, easing his way onto this new surface.
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