Carlos Alcaraz was having a pretty solid start to his Japan Open debut when disaster struck. The Spanish star was leading 2-0 against Sebastian Baez when he suddenly collapsed to the court, clutching what looked like his Achilles tendon.
It happened during the first rally of the fifth game. One moment Alcaraz was playing normally, the next he was on the ground in obvious pain.
The match stopped immediately. You could see how much it hurt just by watching him – he didn’t even try to get up at first.
| Name | Age | Points | Stats 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carlos Alcaraz | 22 | 68,791 | 25 - 5 |
This wasn’t how Alcaraz wanted his Tokyo experience to go. He’d specifically chosen the Japan Open over the China Open this year, saying he wanted to explore a new country and tournament. Nothing to do with avoiding Jannik Sinner, he insisted.
The tournament physio rushed onto the court to check him out.
After a few minutes of evaluation, Alcaraz slowly made his way to his bench. The medical team took a closer look at the injury there. Surprisingly, the pain seemed manageable when he wasn’t putting weight on it.
The four-time Grand Slam champion wanted to keep playing, but only with his ankle taped up for support.
"I feel safer when you tape it, and we’ll try," he told the physio.
That’s pretty typical Alcaraz – the guy hates giving up on matches.
After the medical timeout, he did return to the court. But you could tell he was being really careful with his movement. He lost the next game as he tried to figure out how much he could push himself.
The whole thing was tough to watch. Here’s a player who moves around the court like a dancer, suddenly having to second-guess every step.
What This Could Mean for Alcaraz’s Season
The timing couldn’t be worse. Alcaraz has the Shanghai Masters coming up in just one week – that’s a huge ATP Masters 1000 event starting October 1st.
Right now, he’s leading the race for year-end No. 1 by 2,590 points over Sinner. But if he has to skip Shanghai, that lead gets a lot less comfortable real quick.
Missing a Masters 1000 event means giving up potentially 1,000 ranking points. That’s not something you can afford when you’re trying to stay ahead of someone as good as Sinner.
The good news? Alcaraz has some breathing room after Shanghai.
His schedule shows a few weeks off before the Paris Masters at the end of October. That tournament doesn’t start until October 27th, so he should have plenty of time to recover if this injury isn’t too serious.
After Paris, he’s planning to compete in both the ATP Finals and Davis Cup Finals. He confirmed those plans recently during a chat with Spanish basketball legend Pau Gasol.
But first things first – he needs to get through whatever’s wrong with that ankle. The way he was moving on court after the injury, it’s clear he’s not at 100 percent.
For a player whose game relies so much on explosive movement and quick direction changes, even a minor ankle issue can be a real problem. Alcaraz’s style is all about getting to impossible shots and turning defense into offense.
That’s pretty hard to do when you’re worried about your ankle giving out.
The next few days will be crucial. If the injury forces him out of Shanghai, it could completely change the dynamics of the year-end rankings race.
