Alcaraz admits US Open is not best time to come back, but says he’s ready anyway
The Spaniard has not played competitively in singles since April due to a right wrist injury. He says he and his team are confident he is ready for a best-of-five return at the US Open, revealing he pushed through intense practices to test his wrist before deciding the time was right to come back
Carlos Alcaraz, US Open 2026 | © Andrew Schwartz/SIPA
Carlos Alcaraz admitted on Friday that his preparation for the upcoming US Open is somewhat suboptimal but says he’s ready for the challenge.
The Spaniard has not played a competitive singles match since April due to a serious wrist injury, and though he played mixed doubles in New York with Serena Williams on Tuesday, he knows that playing best-of-five sets, potentially over seven matches, is a tall order.
But when you’ve won six grand slams by the age of 23, confidence is probably not an issue and Alcaraz was in confident mood as he discussed his long-awaited comeback during media day at Flushing Meadows.
“I know coming here, coming to the US Open, best-of-five for the first one in such a long time, it’s really challenging,” he said. “Probably in terms of preparation and everything is not the best time.
my team and me believe that I’m ready. It wasn’t an easy decision. I just did whatever it took to be ready.
“But my team and me believe that I’m ready. It wasn’t an easy decision. I just did whatever it took to be ready. I just tried to do everything perfect on and off the court, to feel ready, really long practices, really intense practices, just to see how my wrist is going to react on the practices and after that really long days.
“We saw everything is OK, everything is good with those practices, and we believe and we thought it’s going to be the time to be back.”
No changes to technique
In the mixed doubles, Alcaraz wore a long sleeve all the way down from high on his right arm, covering the wrist, a precaution against any further aggravation of the injury. There has been some speculation he could make some changes to his technique to protect it, but he batted away any suggestions of the sort.
No, not at all,” he said. “I have been doing the same things. I didn’t change anything about technique, but movement, about the way that I’m gonna play. I just wanted to feel like I’m gonna be myself.
“And I think that’s important. If I just felt that I had to change something to come here, I couldn’t be here. So I think for me the most important thing is to be and to keep my identity, myself. You know, hopefully have a really long career. So that’s what I was thinking. For me, was the most important thing.”
intrusive thoughts were the most difficult to deal with
Despite the optimism, though, it has been a hard process to get to this point. In his most difficult moments, Alcaraz said, quietening the mind has been the most difficult thing to do.
“The first month was kind of difficult for me, because I couldn’t do anything with my right arm. It was tough,” he said.
“At the same time, I enjoyed my time. I enjoyed my time with family, with friends, staying at home. But once I started to practice a little bit, that I didn’t know when I’m going to start, (those) thoughts are really difficult to deal with, because I didn’t know if I’m going to be ready for Cincinnati, for US Open, or I’m gonna miss the whole American swing.
“So those thoughts were really difficult to deal with. But finally, here we are. My goal was try to be healthy as soon as possible and try not to miss, you know, more competitions. I would say that intrusive thoughts were the most difficult things to deal with in this process.”
2024 ARM INJURY A GOOD LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Alcaraz said the experience he gained when he recovered from an arm injury in 2024 to win Roland-Garros should hold him in good stead.
“I have similar feelings with it,” he said. “When I got injured in the forearm (in 2024), before Roland-Garros, I played Madrid. But I am just coming here with kind of similar feelings; I need competition. I needed to come here to practice with these guys, to feel the competition once again, and this is really testing.
“But I’m feeling great I think that injury helped me a lot to know right now that it’s all in my head. I’ve got to trust my team, trust my people that tell me it’s going to be fine. I just have to go 100 percent and right now I think with the practice I have made so far, it’s been all good. I’m trying to stay away from that fear, and I’m playing normal.”
In the absence of Jannik Sinner, who has a knee injury, Alcaraz is the No 2 seed for the US Open and begins his campaign against Roman Safiullin, the Russian who beat Joao Fonseca and took a set off Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon.
