Daily Dose of Social Media: Alcaraz back to training and Sabalenka's windy Madrid experience

In a new Daily Dose of Social Media, Carlos Alcaraz stole the spotlight upon his return to the courts after skipping the Madrid Open and received praise from Boris Becker. On the other hand, Aryna Sabalenka had a peculiar moment in her match against Marta Kostyuk when she was blinded by the clay that was lifted due to the strong wind in Madrid.

Today, Wednesday, April 30th, excellent news arrived for Carlos Alcaraz. The world number three is back in training after a week of rest and recovery. During this time, he was seen enjoying other sporting events, such as the Copa del Rey final and the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez.

The 4-time Grand Slam champion has had a great performance in the clay-swing, stringing together 9 victories, which included winning the Monte-Carlo Masters and then reaching the final of the Barcelona Open, falling to the Dane Holger Rune (6-7, 2-6). After that, Alcaraz had to take a break due to physical difficulties that forced him to withdraw from the Madrid Open before the start of the tournament.

In a recent video on social media, Alcaraz has returned to the courts to begin training in his hometown of Murcia, at the facilities of the Real Sociedad Club de Campo de El Palmar. Although he took to the court with bandages on his thighs, this appears to be a precautionary measure. His team is optimistic about his recovery, and everything indicates that Alcaraz will indeed play in the Masters 1000 in Rome, a tournament he returns to after two years and which will serve as important preparation for Roland Garros.

Former world No. 1 Boris Becker praised Alcaraz's return to the courts after sharing a post on social media that confirmed the Spaniard's return to training. “Medical tests on Monday confirmed Carlos Alcaraz’s adductor injury has healed. Juanjo, his physio, applied precautionary taping but Carlos feels no pain,” the post read. If signs remain positive, he will travel to Rome next Tuesday. A final decision will come this weekend.

“Good news,” the German wrote when reposting the publication.

Ons Jabeur, Beatriz Haddad Maia, and Camila Osorio were among the WTA stars who visited the Real Madrid Women's team training session, exchanging shirts and rackets with the footballers. “It was pretty cool, I was really excited to see Linda (Caicedo), because she’s also Colombian, so it was good, she can, you know, improve a little bit in the finish of the forehand, but it’s good.”

“This is so good,” commented Demi Schuurs while touching the Real Madrid's training ground grass. “Almost as good as Wimbledon I would say.”

“I love soccer, so it was really nice to meet the players and to have a talk about their lives, about our lives, so I hope that I can see them play on Friday and they told me they want to see us play. Yeah, I love it, I’m going to keep it, the all signed (the gifted shirts) so it’s special.”

Check out below the special encounter between two sports in Madrid.

Holger Rune is another who showed his love for football, albeit from London, where he met with PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who gifted him a jersey of the French club with the number 11 and "Holger" on the back. Rune had an early exit from the Madrid Open, after retiring injured in the first round while facing Flavio Cobolli (2-6, ret.).

While waiting for his participation in the Rome Open in a week, he took the opportunity to travel to London, invited by PSG, where he celebrated his 22nd birthday at a dinner with the president of the French club. They met in London, where PSG played the Champions League semifinals against Arsenal, with a 1-0 victory.

Madrid Open doubles first seeds, Erin Routliffe (No. 3) and Gabriela Dabrowski (No. 6), participated in a new Inside the Tour video, where they talked about their hobbies together off the court, including watching Netflix together or dancing. “One of my best friends is married to a male doubles player, and so she’s coming to town tonight so we’ll go to dinner tomorrow,” commented Routliffe. The top-seeded pair were surprisingly defeated in the first round of the tournament, falling to Sorana Cirstea and Anna Kalinskaya (3-6, 6-4, [7-10]).

Aryna Sabalenka experienced a peculiar moment in her match against Marta Kostyuk due to the windy conditions on the Center Court of the Madrid Open. The world No. 1 overcame a tough encounter against the Ukrainian and defeated her 7-6[7-4], 7-6 [9-7], thus reaching the semifinals of the tournament.

During the match, rain and wind were a very significant factor in the play of both, in a rollercoaster due to the constant errors they committed against the unpredictability of the wind. There was even a moment when Sabalenka saw a large amount of clay lift from the court and go directly into her eyes, in a particular moment experienced during the first set when she was leading the tie-break 6-3 with three set points in her favor.