Big blow for world number 1 Carlos Alcaraz.
The 19-year-old Spanish prodigy is suffering from a "muscle tear" in his abdominals and must give up playing the end-of-season Masters and the Davis Cup finals, he announced on social media on Saturday.
He had abandoned 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 (18th), who has since qualified for the final.
After my withdrawal yesterday and having been evaluated by my medical team, @drlopezmartinez and @JuanjoMoreno_M, unfortunately this is the result of my injury: an internal oblique muscle tear in the left abdominal wall with an estimated recovery time of six weeks.
pic.twitter.com/MbVHhJF1Oe
— Carlos Alcaraz (@carlosalcaraz) November 5, 2022
“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.
With 6280 points, the Spaniard is not guaranteed to retain his world number 1 throne at the end of this season.
His illustrious elder, Rafael Nadal, as well as the Greek Stefano Tsitsipas are in ambush.
A faultless course at the Turin Masters will earn 1500 points.
A challenging 2022 season
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. .