This year’s Wimbledon Championships will mark the first edition of the tournament since 2019 not to include Carlos Alcaraz.
The Spaniard, who hoisted back-to-back titles at the All England Club in 2023 and 2024, has been sidelined since April with a wrist injury.
Alcaraz‘s last appearance on the ATP Tour came at the Barcelona Open, and he has since missed out on Roland Garros and the entirety of the grass-court season.
Which player has the most to gain from Carlos Alcaraz’s Wimbledon withdrawal?
Prior to his setback, the 23-year-old had been enjoying another successful season, having completed the Career Grand Slam at the Australian Open before clinching his 26th title in Doha.
Several tennis greats, such as Dominic Thiem and Juan Martin del Potro, have had their careers derailed due to wrist injuries, but Emma Raducanu’s former coach, Mark Petchey, has high hopes for Alcaraz’s return.
Mark Petchey discusses Carlos Alcaraz’s wrist injury
In an interview with The Daily Express, Petchey said: “I don’t think the reset’s going to be so bad for Carlos.
“It’s a lot, it always looks great from the outside looking at him, but he’s not necessarily somebody who wants to do it the way that everybody thinks that you should do it.
“I think that having this time away will rekindle all the passion that he needs for the game, and I think that he’ll come in fresher than ever.
“He’s so young, he’s got just acres of room to make things happen for himself. Do I think he’s going to have a Novak (Djokovic)-style career? Probably not, but I don’t think he needs to.
Is men’s tennis boring without Carlos Alcaraz?
“He’s going to give us enough entertainment, he’s going to have enough titles to do it his way, and hopefully, he can feel comfortable enough to be strong enough to know that that’s enough.
“For a lot of people, they always, if they’re getting judged harshly, say, ‘Why isn’t that enough?’ It is enough. If you do it your way, it’s enough.
“It’s OK not to love your job every day; it’s OK not to want to do things. He has to feel when he comes back – because, for the way he plays, the artistry that he brings, that wrist needs to be fully healed.
“So even if he had to take six months off and didn’t play again this year, it still wouldn’t really change the trajectory of his career.”
Carlos Alcaraz’s results in 2026 prior to his wrist injury
Alcaraz began the 2026 season with a 16-match winning streak that lasted through the Australian Open and the Qatar Open before ending in the semifinals of the Indian Wells Open.
In the Indian Wells final four, Alcaraz fell to Daniil Medvedev in straight sets, with the Russian denying him a third final appearance in ‘Tennis Paradise’.
Then, Alcaraz suffered his most shocking defeat of the year so far at the Miami Open, where he was beaten by Sebastian Korda in the third round.
Alcaraz returned to a tour-level final at the Monte-Carlo Masters, but lost to his rival, Jannik Sinner, in straight sets.
At the Barcelona Open, Alcaraz picked up just one win before withdrawing from his second-round match due to injury.
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