By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday May 3, 2024
Carlos Alcaraz started his comeback in Madrid, where he returned from a month-long hiatus to reach the semifinals. But his right forearm injury remains a problem, and the Spaniard has thus pulled out of next week’s Masters 1000 event in Rome.
“I felt some pain after playing in Madrid, some discomfort in my arm,” the 20-year-old Spaniard wrote on X on Friday. “Today I did some tests and I have a muscle edema in my pronator teres, a consequence of my recent injury. Unfortunately I will not be able to play in Rome. I need to rest so I can recover and play 100% pain free.”
Alcaraz gave it a go in Madrid, wearing a sleeve on his right arm to protect his injury, and told reporters that he was managing the injury by not hitting his forehand at 100 percent. He played well, but also added that he felt more pain in his final match, a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 loss to Andrey Rublev.
“Today probably I felt more in the forearm than yesterday’s match,” Alcaraz said after falling to Rublev. “Playing three hours yesterday (in a victory over Jan-Lennard Struff) I knew that I’m gonna feel something or I’m gonna think about it even more. Playing someone like Rublev that I couldn’t push him to the limit in every point is tough… the end of the match, I sliced the forehand a bit more.”
Third-ranked Alcaraz is 18-5 on the season with one title, at Indian Wells.