Carlos Alcaraz's return from a wrist injury suffered at the Barcelona Open in April has been agonizingly slow, and now one of tennis's most respected voices is openly questioning whether the Spaniard will even set foot on court at the US Open.
Andy Roddick, speaking on his podcast Served, laid out a compelling case for concern. Alcaraz originally tweaked his wrist against Otto Virtanen in the first round of Barcelona, a seemingly minor moment that snowballed into a five-month absence. He missed the remainder of the clay season, skipped the entire grass swing including his Wimbledon title defense, and has since withdrawn from both the Canadian Open and the Cincinnati Open.
Roddick's worry centers on the brutal format of a Grand Slam. Coming back from an extended injury layoff and immediately facing the possibility of seven best-of-five matches over two weeks is, in Roddick's words, counter to the careful, patient approach Alcaraz's team has taken throughout this whole process. He pointed out that testing a recovering wrist for an hour in Cincinnati is a completely different proposition from grinding through a potential four-hour five-setter in the first round at Flushing Meadows.
Roddick was careful to note he has no insider medical knowledge, but the logic is hard to dismiss. If the team has been so diligent about protecting Alcaraz up to this point, throwing him straight into a Grand Slam without any competitive preparation seems like a significant gamble.
A wildcard remains: Roddick acknowledged that if any player could simply show up cold and compete at the highest level, it is Alcaraz. But the cautious route might still prevail.
TennisDraw users have been wrestling with whether to include Alcaraz at all in their US Open bracket predictions given the mounting uncertainty.
