Last year, the Australian Open was played without its star, Novak Djokovic, titled nine times in Melbourne and expelled from the country for lack of being vaccinated against Covid. This time, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, organized from January 16 to 29, will have to compose without Carlos Alcaraz, the youngest world number 1 in the history of the ATP, started in 1973.
“While I was in my best shape during the offseason, I injured myself by making a wrong move during training”, explains on his Twitter account the 19-year-old Spaniard, hit in a muscle of the right leg. “I had worked very hard to reach my best level in Australia”, he continues. “Unfortunately, I will not be able to participate in the Kooyong tournament or the Australian Open. »
The Major of the Antipodes said he was “sorry” for not being able to welcome this year the Spanish prodigy who had been eliminated in the third round last year by Italian Matteo Berrettini, in the tie-break of the fifth set. For its first participation in 2021, Alcaraz had passed the three qualifying rounds and had reached the second round of the main draw. “We wish you a speedy recovery. See you soon on the courts”, adds the Australian Open in its tweet. “It’s a difficult moment to get through, but I have to stay optimistic, recover and look forward. We will see each other in 2024 Australian Open,” concludes Alcaraz.
Already injured at the end of last season
The winner of the last US Open had experienced a premature end to last season, after an abdominal tear, which had forced him to abandon in the quarter-finals of the Masters 1000 in Paris in November. He had missed the Masters in Turin, and the Davis Cup in Malaga.
And his absence in Australia could cost him his place as number 1: Djokovic but also Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas are within range.
This is the third time in the last five Grand Slam tournaments that a Major will be deprived of the world number 1: in 2022, Djokovic was therefore unable to play the Australian Open or the US Open, at because of his vaccination status, and Daniil Medvedev had been refused Wimbledon because of his Russian nationality.