Carlos Alcaraz will not make his return to ATP Tour action at the Canadian Open at the start of next month.
Alcaraz, who completed the Career Grand Slam at the Australian Open earlier this year, has been sidelined since mid-April with a wrist injury.
The Spaniard’s setback has forced him to withdraw from several big tournaments including both Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
Is men’s tennis boring without Carlos Alcaraz?
Many had expected to make a comeback during the North American hard court swing in time for the US Open, but it was confirmed on Thursday he will not appear at the Canadian Open, starting in early August, after his name did not feature on the player list for the Masters event.
Alcaraz recently shared a post on his Instagram of him training with the caption ‘on the right path’, but fans were left concerned after seeing the progress he has made in recovery.
Tennis fans react to Carlos Alcaraz’s new training video
The post shows Alcaraz swinging with an unstrung racket and gingerly regaining a feel for his groundstrokes before hitting lightly against the wall and practicing some serves.
While there are hopes that he will be back in time for his US Open title defence, many are now worried we won’t see him on the tour for a long time.
“He isn’t back before the AO or possibly Paris masters,” said one fan on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This fan said: “These Alcaraz videos make it seem unlikely that he’s playing the US Open. He’s barely hitting the ball.”
Another user stated: “The fact that Alcaraz is barely hitting the ball makes me think he won’t even be ready for the US Open. Might only come back by the Asian swing – and who knows, maybe he’ll have good motivation to try to win Shanghai and Paris.”
One fan predicted: “If he is only now at that point, then he will not be back anytime soon.”
Finally, this fan said: “He looks scared; I can’t see how he’s going to play the US Open.”
Carlos Alcaraz’s slip down the ATP rankings due to injury
Alcaraz started the 2026 season as the world number one, but lost his spot atop the rankings after falling to Jannik Sinner in the Monte-Carlo Masters final.
Despite losing 2000 ATP points after pulling out of Roland Garros, Alcaraz still kept his place as world number two.
But with another 1300 dropped due to his Wimbledon withdrawal, Alcaraz is now set to be overtaken by Alexander Zverev.
Zverev can leapfrog Alcaraz by beating Arthur Fery in the Wimbledon semifinals, but will have more chances to do so in the near future even if he falls to the Briton.
The German is the only player in the live ATP rankings close to catching Alcaraz, with the likes of Felix Auger-Aliassime, Alex de Minaur and Ben Shelton trailing the seven-time major champion by more than 3000.
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