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Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner - Miami Open 2024
ATP Tennis Players, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Roland Garros, Tennis News

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner play down Roland Garros injury concerns


Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner caused concern for fans after they both withdrew from the Italian Open due to injury, but there appears to be positive news ahead of the second Grand Slam of the year.

Alcaraz has been struggling with a right arm injury, with the Spaniard only competing at the Madrid Open in the European clay court season this year.

However, after giving his arm time to rest, the 21-year-old has revealed that he is in better shape ahead of Roland Garros.

“I’m feeling better. Every practice that I have done here, at home, it was pretty good,” said Alcaraz. “I’m feeling better and better. At least I can practice, hit balls without pain. That’s a really good point for me. I’m excited to play my first match here in Roland Garros.”

The Wimbledon champion continued, “This tournament is one of the main reasons that I’m practicing every day, want to be a better player to be able to win these kind of tournaments.. I think we did really good work on the forearm to recover the injury as soon as possible.

“I come here to this tournament with not too many matches, not as much matches as I wanted, but I’m focusing on the practice. I’m practicing well. I’m getting rhythm. I’m getting confidence on the practice that I think is really important, and I think I don’t need too many matches to get my 100%, to get at my high level. So I think with this week here, I’ll be ready for my first match at a really high level. So let’s see how it’s gonna be, my first match, but I trust that it’s going to be a really good match for me.”

For Sinner, it has been the hip that has been troubling him, with their being reports last week that the Australian Open champion was set to withdraw from the upcoming Grand Slam.

Despite this, the Italian appears to have defied the odds after tests showed more positive results, “The hip feels good. The last tests we made, they were very positive. That’s why I’m here. For sure, the general physical shape is not there where I want it to be, but, we cannot make miracles in less than 10 days before the first-round match.

“But I’m happy to be here. Look, it has been a very not easy period for me, not playing Rome, which is a very special tournament. So, I’m very happy.”

The world No.2 added, “I didn’t play tennis nearly three weeks, which is quite a lot, no, before a Grand Slam. But look, I just try to play day by day, no? This is a little bit different approach of a tournament than it used to be, because hopefully getting through to the first round can help me a little bit, finding my rhythm. Most importantly it’s going to be the mental side, no, of being mentally ready, accepting things what could happen on the court, and then we see what I can do.”

Roland Garros begins on Sunday when Alcaraz takes on lucky loser JJ Wolf in his opener, before Jannik Sinner plays Chris Eubanks in the first round on Monday.

Inside the baseline…

It is great news to hear that both Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are at least feeling better ahead of Roland Garros.This may be a different kettle of fish when it comes to matchplay, but both players have reasonably workable draws that they should be able to play themselves into. Sinner has another target in Paris, with the potential of becoming world No.1 for the first time a real possibility for the Italian.

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Matthew Johns, Tennishead Writer, is a professional tennis journalist with a specialist degree in Sports Journalism. He's a keen tennis player having represented his local club and University plus he's also a qualified tennis coach. Matthew has a deep knowledge of tennis especially the ATP Tour and thrives on breaking big tennis news stories for Tennishead.