PARIS - US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz will miss the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the season, after injuring his right leg in training.
“I picked up an injury through a chance, unnatural movement in training,” the Spaniard, 19, wrote on Twitter on Friday.
“I’d worked so hard to get to my best level for Australia but unfortunately I won’t be able to play.
“It’s tough, but I have to be optimistic, recover and look forward. We’ll see you at the Australian Open in 2024.”
The world No. 1’s withdrawal means defending champion and 22-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal will be promoted to top seed at the tournament, which starts on Jan 16.
Novak Djokovic, the nine-time champion and a 21-time Grand Slam winner, will move into the top four seedings.
That will mean he cannot face old rival Nadal until the semi-finals at the earliest.
Alcaraz became the world’s youngest world No. 1 since the creation of the ATP rankings in 1973 by winning his first Grand Slam at the US Open last September.
He then became the youngest player to finish the year at the top of the world rankings and the first outside of Djokovic, Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray to do so since Andy Roddick in 2003.
However, an abdominal tear forced him to retire in the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters in November, leading to his absence from the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin won by Djokovic.
He also had to sit out the Davis Cup Finals.
Alcaraz, who will also miss this week’s Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club event in Melbourne, said recently that 2023 will come with new experiences for him.
“I have to be prepared for that, the pressure.
“The people, the players as well, are going to have all their eyes on me and I’m going to have to be prepared for that,” he said in Abu Dhabi in December, when he was beaten by top-10 rivals Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev.
“I’m just going to see myself better, trying to push myself to a high level. Right now I’m focused on myself, on recovering my level.”
Last season, Alcaraz captured five titles as he won 57 times in 70 matches.
He started 2022 at No. 32 in the world and made the biggest rise to finish top in 50 years of the rankings.
Alcaraz hit the giant-killing jackpot at Madrid in May when he became the only man to beat both Nadal and Djokovic at the same clay-court event.
When he then broke into the world top five in July, he was the youngest man to do so since 2005.
His coach and former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero believes that if Alcaraz stays fit, he is capable of winning 30 Grand Slam titles.
Meanwhile, fellow world No. 1 Iga Swiatek has withdrawn from this week’s Adelaide International 2 WTA 500 tournament due to a right shoulder issue, casting doubts on her fitness before the Australian Open.
The three-time Grand Slam champion crashed to a 6-2, 6-2 defeat by American Jessica Pegula in the United Cup mixed teams tournament in Sydney on Friday and was in tears in Poland’s dugout after the contest.
“Iga Swiatek has withdrawn from Adelaide 2 due to right shoulder injury,” the WTA Insider said in a tweet.
“No. 4 seed Caroline Garcia takes Swiatek’s top line in the draw and the next player to be seeded, Danielle Collins, moves into Garcia’s vacated spot.”
The Adelaide tournament will begin on Monday. Swiatek will hope to shake off the issue in time for Melbourne Park.
Britain’s Emma Raducanu’s Australia Open participation is also in doubt. She retired at 6-0, 5-7 in her second-round match against Slovakian Viktoria Kuzmova at the WTA 250 Auckland Classic on Thursday after rolling her ankle.
Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, who was handed a wild card for the Australian Open, pulled out of the Grand Slam on Saturday due to injury. AFP, REUTERS
