Carlos Alcaraz has been ruled out of both the Italian Open and the French Open with an injury.
There are also increasing worries that Alcaraz could be forced to skip the entire grass-court season.
Speaking on his show, ‘Served with Andy Roddick‘, the 2003 US Open winner gave his thoughts on the situation.
“Of course, because we don’t know anything,” he said.
“If you’re pulling out of tournaments four weeks in advance, yeah, you’re definitely concerned.
“We’re guessing, we’re guessing based on context clues. If you finished a match in Barcelona, I know you called the trainer during that, it feels like wear and tear.
“We’re hoping it’s not a major injury; the context clues don’t suggest that it was something that was ripped, torn in a major way, and we hope that’s the case.
Roddick then suggested Alcaraz may want to rethink how he schedules his clay-court season going forward.
“By the way, he has not been scared to take tournaments off going into Roland Garros the past two years,” he noted.
“So maybe don’t play back-to-back weeks on clay anymore. You’ve gotten hurt in Barcelona while trying to tack it on to Monte Carlo the last couple of years.
“I know it’s easier said than done, local pressures – it’s in your hometown – and everything else. Curious if you kind of take a step back and start scheduling maybe a little bit differently.
If Alcaraz ends up skipping the grass-court season, it could cost him any realistic chance of finishing the year as world number one in 2026.
Sinner currently holds a lead of more than 500 points over Alcaraz in the live rankings, and that gap is expected to widen in the coming months.
The Italian will have 1,950 points to defend between Rome and Roland Garros, while Alcaraz stands to lose around 3,000 points during the same stretch.
Even if Sinner doesn’t pick up a single win at either event, he would still increase his lead over Alcaraz by more than 1,000 points.
Alcaraz does have an opportunity to regain some ground at Wimbledon. Having lost last year’s final to Sinner he has a clear target for where those gains can be made.
But missing out on another grass-court campaign would leave Sinner with a much easier path toward securing his second year-end top ranking in three seasons.
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