Alcaraz confirms US Open return

Carlos Alcaraz has confirmed he will return at the US Open after more than four months out with a wrist injury. The Spaniard missed several major events, including the French Open and Wimbledon. NEW YORK: Carlos Alcaraz has confirmed that he will return to competitive tennis at the US Open, ending an absence of more than four months caused by a wrist injury as he prepares to defend his title in New York. The seven-time Grand Slam champion announced on Thursday that he will take part in the tournament scheduled from August 30 to September 13. He has not played since pulling out of the Barcelona Open in April and subsequently missed the French Open, Wimbledon and the North American hard-court events in Toronto and Cincinnati. Alcaraz had earlier hoped to make his comeback in Cincinnati, where he was the defending champion, but decided to allow more time for recovery. In recent weeks, he has stepped up his workload gradually and trained in Murcia with Denmark's Holger Rune while testing the injury at greater intensity. His return was also marked on Instagram in a football-style post by transfer reporter Fabrizio Romano, who wrote Here we go! alongside confirmation that Alcaraz would be back for the US Open. New York milestone and recent setbacks Flushing Meadows has special significance in Alcaraz's career. He won his first Grand Slam title there in 2022 and, with that victory, became the youngest player to reach world number one in the ATP rankings. In January, Alcaraz became the youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam when he won the Australian Open at the age of 22. He then added the ATP hard-court title in Doha in February. However, his season was then disrupted by injury. After withdrawing in Barcelona, he also pulled out of events in Madrid and Rome before missing Roland Garros, where he had arrived as the two-time defending champion. He also did not feature at Wimbledon, where Jannik Sinner beat French Open champion Alexander Zverev in the final to claim the title for the second straight year. Following Wimbledon, Zverev moved above Alcaraz to second in the world rankings, although Alcaraz has since reclaimed the number two spot. Before this year, he had missed only one Grand Slam since his main-draw debut at the 2021 Australian Open, having also sat out the 2023 Australian Open because of a hamstring injury.