Carlos Alcaraz announced his withdrawal from Wimbledon on Tuesday, May 19, 41 days before the event begins on Monday, June 29.
But why did Alcaraz withdraw from Wimbledon so early?
Is it time to start panicking about Carlos Alcaraz?
He's out of another Grand Slam…
During the latest episode of ‘Nothing Major‘, Steve Johnson shared his theory.
Steve Johnson thinks Carlos Alcaraz is doing the ‘gentlemanly’ thing withdrawing from Wimbledon now
“On the men’s side, there are incredible storylines at the French, [Jannik] Sinner going for the Career Grand Slam, Novak [Djokovic] going for 25, can one of the other guys in the draw win a Slam potentially?” said Johnson.
“He’s kind of doing the gentlemanly thing now. Let’s let everybody talk about it the first few days of Paris, and let’s get to the actual storylines at hand.
“I think it’s the right thing to do, the honourable thing to do.
“Tell people, I’ll see you July 25th. I’m just making up dates; it’s the right thing to do now, get it out of the way.
“You don’t want to see him make this announcement on the semi-final morning of Roland Garros, taking away the shine from guys there.”
Johnson’s co-host, Sam Querrey, agreed.
“He must just make the announcement, just so people know,” said Querrey.
“Rather than have the discussion.
“He might just put this out to say, ‘look, it’s still pretty bad, I’m going really slow, for sure, going to be another six weeks.’ That way, he doesn’t have to answer so many questions, it doesn’t have to be speculative with guys like us talking about it all the time.”
Johnson also commented on the severity of Alcaraz’s injury.
“Originally, I just thought he was missing Madrid and Rome… I was dead wrong a few weeks back, I thought this was going to be a nothing burger,” he said.
“Turns out, it’s a bit more serious than we thought.
“Ultimately, he’s still so young. This is the right thing to do. I know it’s not what we all want; everybody in the world wants to see Carlos compete in the French Open and Wimbledon. But he’s doing what’s best for him in his recovery.
“It’s a right wrist injury, you’ve got to be careful with that. You don’t want to make any comparisons to anyone, but you saw what happened to DelPo [Juan Martin del Potro] back in the day with that right wrist, and he kept having lingering issues. Dominic Thiem as well. You don’t want to have him play Wimbledon and the French and maybe make it much worse than it is. Give him the proper recovery time, come back as strong as ever.
“Hopefully, we see him in the US summer, right, at Toronto, Montreal, Cincy, that’s what we’re all hoping for at this point.
“It’s just a bummer to see Carlos make this announcement now, obviously means it was a 0% chance, if there was any % chance, he would have waited until closer, but for him, he’s doing the right thing, probably for the longevity of his career.
“But as a selfish tennis fan myself, I would love to see him at, at least Wimby, but unfortunately, he’s doing, probably what’s best for him and the longevity of his career.”
Alcaraz won’t play again on clay or grass this year, and will now target a return on North American hard courts.
When will Carlos Alcaraz return?
It’s impossible to know exactly when Alcaraz will return, but history points towards one tournament.
While Alcaraz hasn’t played the Canadian Open since 2023, he’s played the Cincinnati Open every year since making his debut in 2021.
Furthermore, he’s the defending champion in Cincinnati, and will be keen to defend those points.
Alcaraz will drop 3,800 points between now and the end of Wimbledon, widening the gap between himself and Jannik Sinner in the race for world number one.
Official ATP Top 5
- 1. Jannik Sinner – 14,700
- 2. Carlos Alcaraz – 11,960
- 3. Alexander Zverev – 5,705
- 4. Novak Djokovic – 4,710
- 5. Felix Auger-Aliassime – 4,060
If the Spaniard wants to return to the summit of the world rankings, he can ill afford any more withdrawals from Masters 1000 or Grand Slam events.
The 2026 Canadian Open begins on August 1.
