Carlos Alcaraz has confirmed he will not be playing the Cincinnati Open as his absence from the ATP Tour continues due to his wrist injury.
The news was confirmed by the Cincinnati Open’s social media pages, and this will be the third Masters event in a row Alcaraz has been forced to miss.
“We know Carlos is doing everything he can to get back to playing tournaments as soon as possible,” said Cincinnati Open tournament director Bob Moran. “We wish him the best with his recovery and look forward to welcoming him back to Cincinnati in the future.”
The star has now missed five months of ATP Tour action, but he is still sat at world No 2 in the rankings, such as his dominance at the top alongside Jannik Sinner.
Alcaraz did fall to world No 3 in the rankings after Alexander Zverev’s run to the Wimbledon final, but the German lost ranking points due to the points he is defending at the Canadian Open.
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The Spaniard will definitely fall to world No 3 in the rankings after confirming he will miss the Cincinnati Open.
Alcaraz won the tournament last year, which means he will lose the full 1000 ranking points as he is not defending his title in 2026.
That will take him down to 7160 ranking points, which means he will be at least 930 ranking points behind Zverev in second place, although that will very likely grow depending on how he performs in Toronto and Cincinnati.
Alcaraz will start looking over his shoulder due to his Cincinnati Open withdrawal, although he is still some way off Felix Auger-Aliassime in fourth place.
Auger-Aliassime is currently on 4700 ranking points, although the Canadian has an excellent opportunity to catch up on Alcaraz at the Canadian Open.
On home soil, Auger-Aliassime is the second seed, so he will have a very good chance of winning the Masters event for the first time in his career.
If he does so, he will still be around 1500 ranking points away from Alcaraz. With Alcaraz not playing Cincinnati, Auger-Aliassime has another opportunity to catch the star up.
However, the Canadian reached the quarter finals of the competition last year so he will need to better than in order to pick up more points.
Alcaraz will very likely still be the world No 3 by the time of his potential return at the US Open, but he is then defending the full 2000 points at the tournament having lifted the trophy last year, so there’s every chance he falls as the season hits the Asian swing.
