{"id":829355,"date":"2026-08-29T03:34:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T03:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/829355\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T03:34:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T03:34:19","slug":"after-four-months-away-carlos-alcaraz-expects-to-be-himself-at-the-us-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/829355\/","title":{"rendered":"After four months away, Carlos Alcaraz expects to be himself at the US Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 After sitting out more than four months nursing an injured right wrist that caused him to miss the French Open<\/a> and Wimbledon<\/a>, Carlos Alcaraz didn\u2019t decide to return for the U.S. Open to be anything less than his Grand Slam-winning self.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to see Carlitos playing the way he always has,\u201d Alcaraz said.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old from Spain is set to play his first competitive singles match<\/a> Monday since getting sidelined<\/a> by the wrist injury in mid-April. He insists he has not changed anything about his mechanics and expressed confidence about physically feeling great.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need competition,\u201d Alcaraz said Friday. \u201cWe, my team and me, believe that I\u2019m ready. It wasn\u2019t an easy decision. I just did whatever it took to be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz is the defending champion and favored to go back-to-back, a year after beating Jannik Sinner<\/a> and overtaking him for the No. 1 ranking. The field this time does not include Sinner, who withdrew<\/a> because of a right knee injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not going see each other for, like, six months now, seven months,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a weird situation, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexander Zverev is the top seed in Sinner\u2019s absence. But all eyes are on Alcaraz, who earlier this year won his seventh Grand Slam title by defeating Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is going to be pretty tapped in to see his first match,\u201d 11th-seeded American Frances Tiafoe said. \u201cIf he comes back anywhere near his level, it\u2019s tough. Regardless, even if he\u2019s not at his tip-top (shape), you\u2019ve still got to beat him in five (sets).\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz opens against Roman Safiullin as he dives right back into best-of-five-set tennis in his return. He did get a chance to shake some rust off by playing a couple of mixed doubles matches with Serena Williams<\/a> this week, but he knows not getting a full ramp up to the U.S. Open adds another layer of difficulty.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really challenging,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cProbably in terms of preparation and everything, (it) is not the best time.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the energy of playing in New York was enough of a draw that he said, \u201cThere is no better tournament than the U.S. Open to be back.\u201d <\/p>\n

Can he win it off such a long layoff? He knows Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have done it but does not want to set any expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to set a limit for myself,\u201d Alcaraz said in Spanish. \u201cI don\u2019t want to focus on a specific result. I want to focus on the process we\u2019ve gone through. Just go out there, enjoy it and feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zverev, who\u2019s now four years removed from tearing ligaments in his right ankle<\/a>, was reluctant to compare two very different injuries. But he expects Alcaraz to be formidable as the tournament goes on. <\/p>\n

\u201cWrist is never easy,\u201d Zverev said. \u201cI expect him to be maybe a bit rusty the first or second match, but once he gets through that, I think he\u2019s going to be a contender, for sure, here.\u201d<\/p>\n

After dealing with intrusive thoughts during his time away from the sport, Alcaraz is still playing a mental game to not worry too much about the injury. His goals are to get through the U.S. Open healthy and stay away from the fear that creeps into his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just have to go 100%,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cI\u2019ve got to trust my team. I\u2019ve got to trust my people that tell me that it\u2019s going to be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Sports Writer Eric Nunez contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full tennis coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 After sitting out more than four months nursing an injured right wrist that caused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[12082,20509,2073,15511,432,2005,1999,433,813,4037,299656,6542,99,428,31291],"class_list":["post-829355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-alexander-zverev","tag-athlete-injuries","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-frances-tiafoe","tag-jannik-sinner","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-rafael-nadal","tag-roger-federer","tag-roman-safiullin","tag-serena-williams","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-u-s-open-tennis-championships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}