Carlos Alcaraz, endless ordeal: no Wimbledon. Road paved for Jannik Sinner

Carlos Alcaraz announced through his Instagram profile that his recovery from the injury is progressing well, but not well enough for him to return to the field immediately. “My recovery is progressing well and I am feeling much better, but unfortunately I am still not ready to compete, which is why I have to withdraw from the grass tournaments at Queen’s and Wimbledon,” the Spanish champion wrote.

Alcaraz then expressed all his regrets for the absence from the two prestigious events of the grass season: “They are two very special tournaments for me and I will miss them very much. We will continue training to come back as soon as possible.”

The news is not entirely surprising to those who have been following the development of the case in recent weeks. The Spaniard had been stopped by tenosynovitis in his right wrist, or inflammation of the tendon sheath, which tests had revealed to be quite serious. His medical staff had chosen a conservative approach from the start to avert the risk of a more serious injury. It was a similar path to the one taken at the time by Rafael Nadal, who with a similar problem was out of action for about two months, although recovery times can vary significantly from athlete to athlete.

The absence had already made itself felt on the circuit in previous weeks: Alcaraz missed the Internazionali d’Italia and Roland Garros, tournaments in which he was defending champion, losing a total of up to 3,000 ranking points. Meanwhile, Jannik Sinner took advantage of the space left vacant by his rival, dominating the clay-court season and increasing his lead in the ATP rankings to +2,740 points over the Spaniard, who currently occupies the second position with 11,960 points.