Carlos Alcaraz’s injury continues to dominate conversations within the tennis world, as fears grow over the severity of his setback.
After all, having retired mid-way through the Barcelona Open, and subsequently already withdrawn from the Madrid and Italian Open, many are starting to worry that this ailment could see him miss Roland Garros.
Given he is the defending champion, his absence would see him lose significant ground in the race to regain the world number one spot from Jannik Sinner.
Andy Roddick has discussed the severity of Alcaraz’s injury after seeing him pictured in a cast. Now, it’s Brad Gilbert and CoCo Vandeweghe reacting.
Brad Gilbert assesses the severity of Carlos Alcaraz’s wrist injury
Speaking on the Big T Podcast, it was Coco Gauff’s former coach who began with an assessment of the injury.
He began by insisting: “Carlos said that he has got to listen to his medical team and not rush back.”
Should Carlos Alcaraz have skipped the Barcelona Open? Did he make a mistake by playing it?
Gilbert then cited examples of other notable players who were hampered by this exact issue, claiming: “They could just look to a few years ago, to Dominic Thiem, when he had the wrist injury. He never was the same.
“Del Po you could argue was never the same. He hurt both wrists. Andre Agassi, I started coaching him in 1994, when he was just coming off the wrist surgery from 1993 and he told me he did it on one shot, big serve, he caught it late, instantly felt it and got a couple of scans and got the surgery.”
Gilbert then predicted Carlos Alcaraz’s lay-off time, adding: “I am guessing it will be a minimum of three weeks off. Looks at the scan again and that’s before he even hits any balls.
“I think they are going to err on the side of caution, because the last thing they want to do is rush it.
“What’s amazing is how many of these long injuries Rafa had in his career, but every time he would come back and seemingly never drop in the rankings.
“It’s two years in a row though, so maybe he is going to think about going from Monte Carlo to Barcelona. Obviously Rafa played those two tournaments every year too, in his career.”
However, Vandweghe went one step further, encouraging the decision to skip Roland Garros if not completely fit. She claimed: “We forget how young Carlos still is. He is in his early 20’s.
“He has got so much left in his career. So it would not really shock me if he was not up to snuff, if he did not play Roland Garros and skipped it this one year.”
Alcaraz’s has been told he has avoided a big mistake after his Barcelona and Madrid withdrawals. This feels ironic, given he was only able to make that intelligent decision because of a mistake he had already made.
Carlos Alcaraz must skip the Barcelona Open next year
Whilst Alcaraz has a more immediate and important decision to make about his Roland Garros participation, this whole saga should certainly inform his thinking going forward.
After all, this is the second straight year where the Spaniard has rushed from Monte Carlo to Barcelona and injured himself.
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Therefore, the solution for 2027 is simple. He must skip this first event of the year in his home country.
By rushing to Barcelona, Alcaraz ends up missing Madrid anyway, which is the far bigger of the two Spanish events, and thus completely disrupts his clay-court season by forcing himself to recover from injury.
The smart decision, and one he must make next year, is to play Monte Carlo, skip Barcelona, and return to Madrid refreshed after a week of relaxation, easing his way onto this new surface.
