Alcaraz Out of Cincinnati, US Open Defense in Doubt

The 23-year-old is a seven-time Grand Slam champion. He won the Australian Open in January, becoming the youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam, and added the Doha title in February. The injury arrived in the first round of the Barcelona Open in April, at a moment when he held two of the four major titles. Madrid and Rome followed; he pulled out of both. He withdrew from the French Open, a move he said he and his team decided was "the most prudent thing to do." Wimbledon came next, and he skipped it, saying his recovery was going well and that he was still not ready to play.

Jannik Sinner won Wimbledon for the second straight year, beating French Open champion Alexander Zverev in the final. Wimbledon was the third Grand Slam Alcaraz has missed since his main-draw debut at the 2021 Australian Open. If he misses the US Open too, he will have missed three straight majors.

Alcaraz won the Cincinnati title last year. The event is a Masters 1000 tournament, and the 1,000 points from that title will drop off his ranking when this year's edition ends, per ATP rules. He faces the same loss at the US Open, where 2,000 points go to the champion, if he is not ready by then. A first-round match in New York would be his first competitive appearance in more than four months.

The US Open, where Alcaraz is the defending champion, begins August 30 in New York.