(Paris) The world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz suffers from a “muscle tear” in the abdominals and must give up playing the Masters at the end of the season and the final phase of the Davis Cup, he announced on social networks Saturday.
Posted at 12:24 p.m.
Updated at 12:46 p.m.
Alcaraz had retired the day before during his quarter-final at the Masters 1000 in Paris, led 6-3, 6-6, 3 points to 1 by the Dane Holger Rune (18e), who has since qualified for the final.
The young Spaniard suffers from a “tear of the internal oblique muscle of the left abdominal wall, with an estimated recovery period of six weeks”, he wrote on his Twitter account.
“Unfortunately, I will not be able to play the Masters (November 13-20 in Turin) or the final phase of the Davis Cup (November 22-27 in Malaga). It’s a difficult and painful moment to miss these two tournaments that are so important to me,” he continues.
Alcaraz became the youngest world No.1 in history, at 19, after his coronation at the US Open in mid-September.
Will he retain the throne at the end of the year? His fate is no longer in his hands.
With 6820 points, “Carlitos” is under threat from two players, his prestigious compatriot Rafael Nadal, the closest to a thousand points, and the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas. A faultless course at the Turin Masters will earn 1500 points.
Perhaps Alcaraz is paying the price for his crazy 2022 season, during which he achieved a dizzying rise by winning his first Grand Slam trophy and his first two in Masters 1000, in Miami and Madrid.
“I felt something in my abs in the second set. In the end, it got worse, I preferred to give up. It limited me in a lot of things, to hit my forehand, on serve, when I turned, it hurt quite a bit, “described the Spaniard the day before at a press conference, announcing that he was going to take exams. .
“Maybe if I had continued, I should have stopped for something much more serious, I preferred to stop before it got worse,” he said.