Carlos Alcaraz has vowed that he will take extended breaks from tennis in future in order to protect himself against injury as he warned tennis bosses that the current injury crisis is only going to get worse.
The seven-time Grand Slam winner and several other big-name players have for the past few years complained about the lengthy tennis calendar as they believe it is contributing to injuries and fatigue.
So far, nothing has been done, and the injuries have racked up this year with the Spaniard forced to spend four months on the sidelines due to a wrist injury while world No 1 Jannik Sinner is absent from the US Open due to a knee problem.
Alcaraz, who sustained his injury at the Barcelona Open in April, only made his return to action at Flushing Meadows this week and he once again highlighted the 40-week calendar as a big problem for the sport, saying he will be forced to make changes to his schedule if he is to prolong his career.
Carlos Alcaraz News
“Returning took me more time than I wanted, to be honest. Obviously I didn’t want to have this break because of an injury, but in the future, I’m going to take some breaks, some long breaks.
“Maybe not four months, but one month, two months, missing some tournaments, because it’s impossible to play them all.
“I think they are adding more important tournaments. In a way, they are forcing us to choose. You can skip one or two, you can decide your calendar, but there are some Masters 1000s, Grand Slams [that you can’t skip] and we are going to play for 40 weeks if we are going to play every mandatory tournament that the ATP requires us to play.
“It’s impossible and we are seeing a lot of players getting injured, a lot of players are getting tired and if they don’t do anything about it, we are going to see it even more [injuries] in the future.
“But for me, taking this break because of an injury, it wasn’t that good, but what I am saying is I am going to take some breaks and miss some tournaments in future for sure.”
Alcaraz played 80 matches in 2025, second behind only Alexander Zverev with the German playing two more matches, while in 2024 he featured in 67 matches with Zverev finishing on 89.
After his 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 second-round win over Jaime Faria, Alcaraz moved to 23-3 for the 2026 season, but there is no doubt his total would have been close to the 50-match mark had he not been forced to miss several tournaments, including the French Open and US Open, due to injury.
The second seed concedes that he lacked patience during the first set against Faria.
“The first set, I was feeling great, had a break point and a pretty easy forehand for me that I missed. I was in a rush. I didn’t take time. I wasn’t patient,” he said during his on-court interview. “That cost me the break. Against someone like Jaime, he’s serving like 140 [mph], every serve is really difficult.
“After that, I just tried to be focused and stay calm and think that good things are going to happen again.”
