Carlos Alcaraz has returned to tennis at the US Open, where he is set to play his first singles match since suffering a wrist injury at the Barcelona Open in April.

The Spaniard began his return with a high-profile doubles partnership with Serena Williams in the US Open mixed doubles.

Alcaraz and Williams defeated Lloyd Glasspool and Erin Routliffe to reach the quarter finals of the competition, where they were beaten by Flavio Cobolli and Belinda Bencic.

The world No 3 has also been hitting the practice courts at Flushing Meadows, alongside the likes of Daniel Merida and Arthur Fils.

Speaking on Kim Clijsters Love All podcast, Blair Henley has questioned Alcaraz’s preparations at the US Open, which started with him playing without a partner.

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“So, typically with these practices I have like for instance yesterday you had Matteo Arnaldi practicing with Lorenzo Musetti or you had Daniel Merida practicing with Alex de Minaur. So, you have two players whose coaches or agents talk to each other,” said Henley.

“They plan a time to go out and hit. They get a practice in. It is fairly unusual during this lead up to the US Open week to see a player out with just a coach, where most of the balls are being fed to him out of a basket.

“He did some two on ones as well with Samu and Alvaro, but for the most part he was getting balls fed to him. So, initially I was thinking I don’t know that that is a great sign.”

Alcaraz has since started playing with high-profile hitting partners, but he also might have been hit with another stumbling block in New York.

Alcaraz was set to return to the practice courts at the US Open on Wednesday, 26th August, a day after his final match with Williams in the doubles.

However, Alcaraz is now nowhere to be seen on the schedule and looks to be taking a day off to recover, with just four days to go until the US Open begins.

Whether this is precautionary, or the plan all along, it does seem strange that Alcaraz has opted not to hit tennis balls so close to the US Open.

Alcaraz will find out his first round opponent at the US Open when the draw is made on Thursday, 27th August.

As the second seed at the tournament, Alcaraz already knows that he will be in the opposite side of the draw to Alexander Zverev, who will play the event as the number one seed.