Carlos Alcaraz gave his fans a real scare during his third-round match at the 2025 Australian Open when he called for a medical timeout.
The thing is, it looks like only an injury could stop Alcaraz from reaching another major final this year. The Spaniard arrived in Melbourne in absolutely incredible form.
He’s been steamrolling past opponents left and right. Reilly Opelka, Mattia Bellucci, and Luciano Darderi have all fallen to his racket, and here’s the crazy part – he’s only lost 10 games in his last two matches combined.
| Name | Age | Points | Stats 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carlos Alcaraz | 22 | 68,791 | 25 - 5 |
That works out to just 1.6 lost games per set. Pretty amazing stuff from the 22-year-old.
But all that dominance could mean nothing if an injury was preventing him from playing his best tennis.
Alcaraz had won the first set against Darderi pretty easily. Then, when he was up 4-3 in the second set, he did something that made everyone nervous – he walked over to the umpire to request a physio.
The medical team came out when Alcaraz was leading 5-4. He took a timeout for what appeared to be an issue with his right knee.
Here’s where it gets interesting though.
After his medical timeout, Alcaraz didn’t just continue playing – he absolutely took off. He won every single remaining game in the match.
The five-time major winner finished things off with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 victory. That dominant finish was the first hint that maybe the medical timeout was just a scare.
Alcaraz confirmed exactly that during his on-court interview after the match. He said he felt something weird in his leg, but it disappeared after just a few rallies.
"I’m feeling good, it was just a precaution that I asked for the physio. When he broke my serve, in the last point I felt something in the knee, but after five or six points it was gone. I just asked the physio to take care of the knee, so I had to be feeling good. I am going to talk to my team about it, but I’m feeling good."
Alcaraz admits he’s not a fan of early starts
Alcaraz played the very first match of the day on Arthur Ashe Stadium. For a guy who’s not exactly what you’d call a morning person, that presented its own challenges.
When reporters asked him about playing so early, the 2022 US Open champion was pretty honest about his biggest struggle during the match.
Staying awake.
"I just tried to start awake, that was important. Starting at 11:30 a.m. is not a schedule that I’m used to playing, so my first goal is to start well, to start focused. I think I started really well, pushing him to the limit, playing long rallies, and after that kept it going."
He was even more blunt about his morning habits:
"I’m not a [morning] person. For me, it’s difficult to wake up in the mornings, so that’s a good thing today that I woke up early, I did the warmup well, played good… It seems like I’m a Spanish guy!"
The early finish actually works in Alcaraz’s favor though. He’ll have extra time to recover from that knee scare and make sure his body doesn’t betray him in the rest of the tournament.
He also caught a break in the draw. Both Daniil Medvedev and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina lost early, so he avoided facing a seeded opponent in the fourth round.
Instead, Alcaraz’s next opponent will be Arthur Rinderknech – the same guy who beat Alexander Zverev at this year’s Wimbledon. Not exactly a pushover, but probably not the toughest test he could have faced.
