Carlos Alcarazwho was training these days at the Real Sociedad Club de Campo de Murcia, in El Palmar, where he started playing tennis, progresses in his preparation for Roland Garros, a tournament in which he will reappear at the end of the month after giving up playing the 1,000 Masters in Rome due to the discomfort he has in his right forearm.
The Murcian, 21 years old and number 3 in the ATP rankings, was accompanied during those sessions held at home by his team, with coach Juan Carlos Ferrero at the helm, and he was seen with that comprehensive muff that continues to cover his right arm and which he already used in the Mutua Madrid Open.
The man from Palma is increasing the intensity of the blows progressively and starting this Thursday he will train at the JC Ferrero Equelite Sport Academy from the Alicante town of Villena. Next week he will travel to Paris, where he will compete in the second Grand Slam of the season – in the first, the Australian Open, he lost in the quarterfinals against the German Alexander Zverev by 1-6, 3-6, 7- 6 (2) and 4-6-.
He will do so having played only eight matches in the last two months, since he won the title at the Indian Wells Masters 1,000, for now his only trophy of the course and which he won by beating the Russian Daniil Medvedev by 7-6 (5) and 6-1 on March 17.
Since then he played four matches in two other tournaments of the same category, in Miami and Madrid.since in both cases he fell in the quarterfinals against the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov by 2-6 and 4-6 and the Russian Andrey Rublev by 6-4, 3-6 and 2-6, respectively.
The fact of having only played those eight matches and having also spent time without training due to that physical problem and a sprained right ankle, which he suffered at the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro in February, It makes him leave with a competition deficit at this point in the year since he only played 23 games, of which he won 18.
In that sense is at a clear disadvantage compared to the vast majority of other strong candidates to achieve victory in Paris.
Of those who currently occupy the top 10, only Novak Djokovic, who is number 1 and at 36 years old – next Wednesday he will turn 37 – has been dosing efforts for some time, he has played fewer matches than Alcaraz in 2024. The Serbian has only played 17 matches since January, with 12 wins and 5 losses and in Rome they fell in the third round.
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The Italian Jannik Sinnersecond player in the world and also absent in the transalpine capital in his case due to a hip injury, He has played 30 games this season, winning 28 and only losing 2.
Medvedev played morefourth on the ATP list, with a record of 24 wins and 7 losses.
The other players in the top 10 also played more than thirty games in that period. Zverev presents a 25-9, Rublev a 22-8, the Norwegian Casper Ruud a 32-8the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 24-8, the Polish Hubert Hurkacz 26-10 and Dimitrov 24-8.
Of them, only Zverev, Tsitsipas and Hurkacz are still in contention in Rome, the first of them in the semi-finals and the other two in the quarterfinals, since Ruud fell in the second round, Rublev in the third and Medvedev and Dimitrov in the round of 16 .
For its part, Rafael Nadalchampion in Paris 14 times since 2005, the most in history, but whose physical condition continues to diminish him, He only played 11 games this year, of which he won 7 and lost 4 and will arrive at Roland Garros after being knocked out in the second round in Rome.
In terms of titles, the one who rules in 2024 is Sinner with three -Australia, Rotterdam and Miami-, while Rublev won two -Hong Kong and Madrid- and one each went to Alcaraz, Ruud -Barcelona-, Tsitsipas -Monte Carlo- , Hurkacz -Estoril- and Dimitrov -Brisbane-.
2024-05-16 08:59:51
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