Blessed with pain in the right wrist and forced to withdraw from the Madrid Masters 1000, Spanish Carlos Alcaraz, world No. 2, remained vague on Monday about his presence at Roland-Garros, stating that he did not want to “force” or “take risks” to worsen his injury.
Questioned at a press conference in Madrid after winning the Laureus Award for best athlete of the year, Alcaraz refused to give “a percentage” of chances to participate in the Parisian Grand Slam, of which he is the defending champion.
“I prefer to come back maybe a little later”
“If I push to play this Roland-Garros, it might harm me for the following tournaments. We are waiting for the next examination to learn more and make a decision. But I prefer to come back maybe a little later, but very well, than to come back fast and risk worsening this injury,” he said.
“Having to withdraw from the Barcelona tournament, and now from Madrid, which are tournaments that I look forward to playing in front of my home crowd all year, is really painful. But these are things that happen in professional sports and must be accepted,” continued the 22-year-old Spaniard, winner of four Grand Slam tournaments.
“I have a long career ahead of me, so I am not afraid of missing what I have to miss to recover as best as possible. I hope it’s nothing, but I have to recover well if I don’t want it to cause me problems in the future,” he concluded.
