Carlos Alcaraz closed the previous season as the youngest number 1 of the year, becoming the first teenager to do so. Carlos captured his first big title at the US Open in September and conquered the ATP throne. The Spaniard suffered an injury at the Paris Masters, skipped the ATP Finals and the Davis Cup Finals and has not played since.
Carlos had been working hard to get back to 100% for the Australian Open before suffering a leg injury that kept him out of Melbourne. In this way, Alcaraz will miss the inaugural Major of the season, and could lose the world number 1 position in favor of Novak Djokovic, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud.
Carlos will compete again in a month, at the ATP 250 in Buenos Aires on clay. The Spaniard will tour South America on clay, hoping to defend his Rio de Janeiro title and his 500 ATP points. Alcaraz will be the favorite in Buenos Aires, looking for his first title of the season and a fresh start after a difficult couple of months.
Carlos made incredible progress in 2022, starting from outside the top-30 and finishing at the very top. Alcaraz won the title in Rio de Janeiro and became the youngest ATP 500 champion since the series began in 2009. The young tennis player pushed Rafael Nadal to the limit in the Indian Wells semifinal and lost after more than three hours.
Carlos went all the way two weeks later in Miami and became the third youngest Masters 1000 champion after Michael Chang and Rafael Nadal.
Alcaraz will be back next month
Increasingly present a few days before the start of the Australian Open, Mats Wilander, star consultant for Eurosport, had very strong words regarding the future of Carlos Alcaraz in this sport.
Until eclipsing Federer, Nadal and Djokovic? “For me, seeing Alcaraz win the US Open was the most exciting tournament I’ve seen in over 20 years working in television or media as an analyst. I said I thought if Alcaraz kept winning – and I even said this privately to [Alcaraz’s coach] Juan Carlos Ferrero – he could become the most important tennis player we’ve ever had.
had in our sport. People are going to say to me, ‘What do you mean? Isn’t Roger Federer…? Isn’t Rafael Nadal…? Yes, they are absolutely, incredibly important. But here you have a guy who tries so hard, he’s so quick, he plays with so many different shots, he can serve and volley at 15-30.
He is only 19 ! He hits drop shots at 15–30, he’s 19! Then he dives in, and at the end he smiles and he laughs.”
