Carlos Alcaraz makes worrying scheduling decision after US Open doubles exit

Carlos Alcaraz is officially back in action at the US Open, as he played alongside Serena Williams in the mixed doubles event.

Alcaraz and Williams defeated Lloyd Glasspool and Erin Routliffe in their first match on Arthur Ashe Stadium, before exiting the tournament at the hands of Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli.

It was a good run out for the Spaniard in his first match for five months, since he suffered a wrist injury at the Barcelona Open back in April.

Alcaraz looked slightly off the pace, particularly on serve, but there was much to celebrate in the Spaniard’s first match after such a long time out.

However, there could be reason to worry about the world No 2 ahead of his planned appearance in the main draw of the US Open, which begins on Sunday, 30th August.

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Alcaraz is not currently planned to practice on Wednesday, 26th August, just a day after playing his first two matches since his injury.

It is not currently known whether this was planned by Alcaraz and his team or not, but it does seem strange that the Spaniard is not at least hitting balls with his coaches at the Grand Slam.

So far, Alcaraz has played practice sessions alongside Arthur Fils and Daniel Merida in New York and he was initially on the schedule to play on Wednesday.

That was changed after his stint in the mixed doubles and he has been replaced on Arthur Ashe Stadium by world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka and Zeynep Sonmez.

Hopefully it is just a precautionary decision from Alcaraz and we will see him back in action ahead of his potential appearance in the main draw.

Alcaraz will find out who he plays in his opening round match when the draw is made on Thursday, 27th August and there is plenty of pressure already on the world No 3.

The Spaniard won the US Open last year, so he will be defending the full 2000 points at Flushing Meadows. If he is beaten in the first round, or doesn’t play the tournament at all, then he will be on 5160 ranking points on the ATP Tour.

That will put Felix Auger-Aliassime, who is currently on 4640 ranking points, the chance to replace the Spaniard as the world No 3 on the ATP Tour.

However, Auger-Aliassime reached the semi finals of the Grand Slam in 2025, so he will need to better that at the US Open this year in order to pick up more ranking points.