Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, double title holder, announced Friday that he was withdrawing from participating in Roland-Garros, as well as the Masters 1000 in Rome, due to an injury to his right wrist.
“After the results of the examinations carried out today, we decided to remain cautious and not participate in Rome and Roland-Garros, while waiting to see the evolution (of his injury) to decide when we will return to the court,” declared the world No.2 on his social networks, speaking of a “complicated moment” for him.
Injured in the right wrist and forced to forfeit the Masters 1000 in Madrid, assured last Monday that he did not want to “force” or “take the risk” of aggravating his injury, even to defend his Porte d’Auteuil crown (May 18 – June 7).
“If I force myself to play this Roland-Garros, it could harm me for the following tournaments. I prefer to come back perhaps a little later, but very well, than to come back quickly and risk aggravating this injury,” explained the 22-year-old Spaniard.
“I have a long career ahead of me, so I’m not afraid of missing what I have to miss to recover as best as possible. I hope it’s nothing, but I have to recover well if I don’t want this to cause me problems in the future,” he added.
The absence of Alcaraz, winner of seven Grand Slam tournaments, including the last two Roland-Garros, could benefit his rival Jannik Sinner, who has never won the Paris tournament until now.
The Italian, currently involved in Madrid, has just regained first place in the world by winning the final in Monte-Carlo against the Spaniard two weeks ago.
