SerpApi.Org
The tennis world is waiting in anticipation for Carlos Alcaraz’s return to the sport, following a lengthy five-month absence.
Alcaraz suffered a wrist injury at the Barcelona Open in April, which derailed much of his season. The Spaniard was forced out of Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
That caused him to lose his World No 2 status to Alexander Zverev, but there have been some positive signs the seven-time Grand Slam champion could return to action soon.
Alcaraz is on the entry lists for both the Cincinnati Open and the US Open, so fans could see the star finally playing tennis again in a matter of weeks.
However, there is still some uncertainty about Alcaraz’s injury and Clijsters has been left confused by the Spaniard’s communucation in recent weeks.
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Asked if she knows anything about his wrist injury on her podcast Love All, having suffered several herself during her playing career, Clijsters replied: “I don’t. I hope that we’ll maybe hear a little bit more about it once he starts coming back, where he explains it a little bit more.
“But I feel like he’s been very kind of like he has been secretive, but he hasn’t. Like we’ve seen him with a brace or a cast and you know at the start and then I think you know he posts some clips here and there where he’s actually hitting and doing some drills but I haven’t seen anything of him like playing full out yet either. So, I’m just very curious to see.”
Alcaraz has reportedly returned to ‘light’ training, which could be a major worry for the star’s status at the Cincinnati Open and the US Open.
The Cincinnati Open is set to begin on the 11th August, so Alcaraz does not have much time to get up to speed with the hustle and bustle of the ATP Tour.
Should he miss that event, he would have to play the US Open without a single warm-up tournament. Alcaraz is also under threat of losing more ground on Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev in the ATP Tour rankings.
If Alcaraz does not play the Cincinnati Open, he will lose the 1000 ranking points he earned for winning the Masters tournament last year.
That would leave him at 7160 points while Zverev is only defending semi final points from last year’s event. Should Zverev reach the final, which he would be expected to on current form, there could be any even bigger divide between the World No 2 and the World No 3.
