Carlos Alcaraz is scheduled to play on Saturday at the 2025 Japan Open in Tokyo, but nobody knows if he’ll actually step onto the court.
The 22-year-old Spanish star chose Tokyo over Beijing this year because he wanted to experience something different.
But his experiment got off to a pretty rough start when he hurt himself during his opening match against Sebastian Baez.
| Name | Age | Points | Stats 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carlos Alcaraz | 22 | 68,791 | 25 - 5 |
The injury happened in the fifth game, and Alcaraz actually fell to the ground in pain. For a moment, it looked like his tournament might be over before it really began.
What happened next was surprising
Instead of retiring from the match, Alcaraz somehow managed to keep playing. He didn’t just finish the match – he dominated it, winning 6-4, 6-2 in straight sets.
That’s the kind of mental toughness that’s made him one of tennis’s biggest stars.
The ATP 500 tournament schedule gave him Friday off, which meant more time to figure out how bad the injury really was.
Right after beating Baez, Alcaraz sounded pretty optimistic about his chances:
"I was unlucky. I was feeling good, and that happened. I would say it saved me that I was going forward. I was worried because of the first minutes of hurting my ankle, I didn’t feel good at all, but then afterwards I started to feel a bit better."
He seemed relieved that he could even walk normally.
"I could walk to the bench, which for me was a relief, and right now I’m feeling the same way, which for me is great, because when it cooled down and I’m feeling the same way as on the court, I think it’s a great sign."
But Friday brought different news
According to Spanish outlet MARCA, Alcaraz missed his practice session on Friday. That’s never a good sign when you’re supposed to play the next day.
Even worse? He’s still feeling pain 24 hours later.
That’s definitely not what you want to hear if you’re an Alcaraz fan planning to watch his Saturday match against Zizou Bergs.
The bigger picture here is pretty concerning
Alcaraz is one of the most popular players on tour, and he knows it. After his win over Baez, he mentioned that not wanting to disappoint the fans was part of why he kept playing through the pain.
That’s a really admirable quality, but it could also be a problem.
Professional athletes sometimes need to make tough decisions about their health, even when it means letting people down. The fans who bought tickets will be disappointed, sure, but they’d rather see Alcaraz healthy in the long run.
The timing makes this decision even more important. Alcaraz has a packed schedule coming up that includes some major tournaments he’s never won before.
He’s supposed to play the Shanghai Masters and Paris Masters in the coming weeks.
More importantly, he’s got the ATP Finals and Davis Cup Finals on his calendar – two tournaments that have escaped him so far in his career.
Those tournaments matter way more than one match in Tokyo, no matter how much he wants to give the Japanese fans a good show.
With everything at stake, the smart move would probably be to withdraw from Tokyo and focus on getting that ankle completely healthy. Sometimes the hardest decision is also the right one.
