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Carlos Alcaraz should skip Rome Open amid continued injury issues with Roland Garros as priority
ColumnThursday, 02 May 2024 at 13:51
Carlos Alcaraz continues to have issues surrounding his right forearm and truth betold managed to limp through this week before being soundly beaten by an epic display by Andrey Rublev. But with the Rome Open on the horizon, the onus should be on skipping the tournament.
Alcaraz admitted post match that he had soreness all over his body when he woke up and that his team wasn't even sure that they'd make it this far at Madrid. For a player of his level, this has to be of huge concern despite him not playing since Miami prior. After his resurgence at Indian Wells, Alcaraz again sits at a crossroads. Either he will return to form or flounder like he has since Wimbledon apart from the Sunshine Double.
"It has been a difficult day for me after yesterday's match, it had been a while without a match like this and I woke up with soreness all over my body," said Alcaraz.
"Neither my team nor I thought I would get to where I am. The first time I picked up the racket after a week was here, hitting it very soft. To get as far as I did, I would have already signed for it. Now, to continue working to see if I can recover my normal right hand and without thinking about the forearm. Let's see how it goes in the coming weeks."
But this in itself should see him skip Rome with Roland Garros firmly in mind. Elena Rybakina brought up the scheduling issues which were echoed by Andrey Rublev about two week Masters tournaments and for Alcaraz, he would be playing the next few weeks while likely resting an injury meaning a similar predicament to Felix Auger-Aliassime for instance. Him and Denis Shapovalov last year spent most of it playing despite being injured due to not being able to take any time off and also the tournaments being mandatory.
Also if he does decide to skip Rome, the ranking blow won't be that much with Alcaraz infamously losing to Fabian Marozsan last year and so he isn't defending anything other than second round points. He instead should focus on the French Open and then his dual title defence at Queen's and Wimbledon. A long old season especially for someone of Alcaraz's stature, he should put his body first similar to his rivals Sinner and Djokovic. Whether he will though remains to be seen.
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