The yr’s first main tennis match suffered a serious blow on Friday when Carlos Alcaraz, the precocious males’s world No. 1 from Spain, introduced that he was withdrawing from the Australian Open with a proper leg harm.
Alcaraz, a 19-year-old phenom with an acrobatic and all-court sport, gained his first Grand Slam singles title in September on the U.S. Open in often-spectacular trend, prevailing in a collection of compelling and ceaselessly prolonged matches.
His four-set victory over Casper Ruud within the last was the capstone to a breakthrough season and propelled him to the highest spot within the males’s rankings, however Alcaraz has struggled together with his well being since then: withdrawing from the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin, Italy, and Davis Cup Finals in Malaga, Spain, with an indirect muscle tear in his left stomach wall.
He has not competed in an official occasion since retiring in opposition to Holger Rune, one other gifted 19-year-old, within the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters in early November, although he took half in an exhibition in Abu Dhabi final month. Alcaraz returned to his coaching base in Villena, Spain, to recharge and rehabilitate for the 2023 season, however he said in a social-media post on Friday that he had injured the semimembranosus muscle in his proper leg throughout a coaching session.
“I’d worked so hard to get to my best level for Australia,” he wrote in a Twitter submit, saying his withdrawal from an exhibition subsequent week close to Melbourne and from the Australian Open, which is able to start on Jan. 16.
“It’s tough, but I have to be optimistic, recover and look forward,” he wrote.
Alcaraz’s withdrawal signifies that the Australian Open can be with out the boys’s No. 1 singles participant for the second yr in a row, albeit below starkly completely different circumstances.
Last yr, Novak Djokovic was deported from Australia on the eve of the match after arriving within the nation with out being vaccinated for the coronavirus and dropping an prolonged and high-profile authorized battle with the Australian authorities.
But Australian authorities coverage has modified, now permitting unvaccinated foreigners to enter the nation, even with out an exemption. Djokovic, a nine-time Australian Open singles champion, returned to Australia this yr and has obtained a heat welcome thus far on his means to the semifinals of the lead-in match in Adelaide this week.
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