Carlos Alcaraz now has a time and place for his return to competition. After more than four months away from the ATP Tour due to a right wrist injury that brought his season to an abrupt halt in Barcelona, the Murcia native confirmed on social media Thursday that he will play in the US Open. New York has been chosen as the stage to conclude the longest period of downtime in his career so far.
Not just any place.
Alcaraz is making his comeback at the tournament where everything began to change for him. It was at Flushing Meadows in 2022 when he claimed his maiden Grand Slam title and climbed to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time. It was there that he returned to the pinnacle last year, defeating Jannik Sinner to claim his second US Open title. This time he will touch down in New York with a very different mission: to feel like a tennis player again after four months without competing and to defend the title he claimed a year ago.
Alcaraz has not played a match since 14 April, when he beat Otto Virtanen in his opener at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell. The issue with his right wrist eventually forced him to retire from the tournament before his second-round match. What at first seemed to be a mere bump in the road ended up becoming a much more delicate injury than anyone expected.
Since then, prudence has dictated decisions. First Madrid was scratched from his calendar. Then came Rome and Roland Garros. Alcaraz himself explained at the time that the medical tests recommended not taking risks and waiting to see how the wrist progressed before establishing a date for a return to action. Paris was particularly painful — the Spaniard was defending the last two Roland Garros titles, but he eventually withdrew.
Alcaraz was also ultimately not ready for the grass season. On 19 May, he confirmed that he would not be at Queen’s Club or Wimbledon. He was improving, but still not ready to compete. The decision meant he would miss two tournaments with which he had built a special relationship over recent seasons: He is a two-time champion of both Queen’s and Wimbledon, while he also reached his third consecutive final at the latter in 2025.
The season continued to progress without him.
Canada was not graced by his presence and, early in August, Alcaraz also withdrew from Cincinnati because his wrist was still not ready to handle the stresses of competition. It completed a list of absences that reflects the magnitude of his hiatus: Madrid, Rome, Roland Garros, Queen’s, Wimbledon, Canada and Cincinnati. The entire European clay-court swing from Barcelona onwards, the whole grass-court season and practically all of the North American hard-court events.
He has never been sidelined for so long.
By the end of July, Alcaraz had gone over 100 days without playing an official match, the longest period of inactivity since he started his professional career. When he next faces an opponent, in New York, it will have been over four months since that last appearance in Barcelona.
But things have gradually changed in recent weeks. After an initially conservative approach to his recovery, Alcaraz began to increase the workload in Murcia. First came physical exercise and on-court practice while still protecting his wrist. Then came his first forehands and, little by little, the intensity was ramped up. In late July he posted pictures of himself working that same shot to test the reaction of the joint.
The final exam was considerably more demanding.
In recent days, the Spaniard has shared a court in Murcia with Holger Rune. The pair have been training at Real Sociedad Club de Campo Murcia, increasing the level in a set of sessions that allowed Alcaraz to test his wrist against an elite player before making his final decision on New York. The pictures showed Alcaraz moving with intensity and progressively increasing the demands on his shots and his serve.
But practice and competition are different animals. This will be the big question mark over the Spaniard as he arrives at the US Open.
Alcaraz will touch down at Flushing Meadows without an official match under his belt since April and go straight into a best-of-five-set tournament. His first match back will be at a Grand Slam event. And not just any Grand Slam event.
New York occupies an essential space in the Murcia native’s career. Even before he became champion, the US Open was the stage on which he announced his arrival. In 2021, he reached the quarter-finals as a fresh-faced teenager. One year later he was back and produced one of the best campaigns in recent memory, surviving three consecutive five-set encounters before seeing off Casper Ruud in the final. He was just 19 years old. That night he won his first major and also became the youngest No. 1 in the history of the PIF ATP Rankings.
He was champion again three years later. Alcaraz produced an extraordinary display at the 2025 US Open, reaching the final without dropping a set and seeing off Novak Djokovic in the semis. Then he squared off against Sinner for the third consecutive tussle between the pair for a Grand Slam title. The Spaniard won the match in four sets to claim his sixth major and return to World No. 1.
His comeback, therefore, is something of a return to the beginning.
Alcaraz cannot be sure what shape he will find his game in after such a long spell on the sidelines. Four months without competing throws up questions that cannot be fully answered in practice sessions. His wrist will have to withstand serves, forehands, long matches, and the repeated stress that comes with surviving two weeks at a Grand Slam. Nor will there be much time to find his game.
After months during which every update on his fitness came with an element of doubt, the news the Tour has been waiting for finally came on Thursday. Carlos Alcaraz is coming back.
He will do so on the very stage where he won his first Grand Slam, where he discovered what it means to be No. 1 in the world, and where last year he got his hands, once again, on the season’s final major.
Between Barcelona and New York he will have waited for over four months. Now it is time for Alcaraz to play tennis again and, while he’s at it, he has a crown to defend.
Editor's note: This story was translated from ATPTour.com/es
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