An ugly diagnosis will weigh down the closing of the course of Carlos Alcaraz (19), that of his takeoff as a top-class tennis player.
The abdominal is torn and that requires rest, there is no more. A rest of six weeks and its closing of season.
The world leader will not attend the imminent Masters Cup - the first of his career; last year he had won the Next Gen Masters Cup- and he will not accompany Spain in the Davis Cup finals either.
"After being evaluated by my medical team, Dr. López Martínez and Juanjo Moreno, unfortunately this is the result of my injury: muscle tear in the internal oblique musculature of the left lateral abdominal wall with an estimated recovery time of six weeks," Alcaraz tweeted this Saturday.
The day before, Alcaraz had had to disappear from the scene when he faced Holger Rune, a generational companion and highly inspired tennis player in this final stretch of the season. At that time, the score was at 6-3 and 6-6 and a tie-break for the Danish cyclone.
Alcaraz's problems had taken shape minutes before his withdrawal. After a gesture of pain, he had requested the presence of the doctor. Three minutes of attention had not been enough. Two games later, at the start of the tie-break, the Murcian threw in the towel.
After eight meteoric months, culminating in his victory at the US Open in September (the first Grand Slam of his career) and his assault on the world leadership (he is the youngest leader in the history of the circuit), Alcaraz's journey has become cloudy in recent weeks, perhaps as a result of his extensive journey, since he has 70 games in 2022.
He had lost in his meeting with Auger-Aliassime in the Davis Cup, and in his debut at the Astana tournament (against David Goffin), and had fallen again to Auger-Aliassime, this time in the semi-finals in Basel.
These days at Paris-Bercy, he seemed to have regained his cruising speed. So said his solid victories against Nishioka and Dimitrov. However, on Friday, against Rune, he had stumbled in the first set and ended up retiring in the second.
His premature closure of the course will not prevent him from keeping the options to end the year as number 1.
Alcaraz will not add points in the Masters Cup, a tournament that distributes 200 points for each victory, 400 for reaching the semifinals and 1,500 for the undefeated champion. Right now, though, only Nadal and Medvedev seem in a position to take the job from him.
