According to Liam McMillen of Yahoo! Sports on Thursday, world number two Carlos Alcaraz of Spain has pulled out of the 2026 Barcelona Open because of a wrist injury. The withdrawal comes after Alcaraz beat Otto Virtanen of Finland 6-4, 6-2 in the first round on Tuesday.
The injury happened in the first set as Alcaraz’s wrist “gave way ” in an attempt to return the tennis ball according to the ATP Tour. After the ninth game of the set, Alcaraz received medical attention from the trainer. It is interesting that Alcaraz tried to persevere with the pain, but the discomfort was getting worse instead of better. The wrist did not impact his play much. In a notable statistic, after calling the trainer, Alcaraz won seven of the last nine games.
Alcaraz was to face Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic on Thursday in the second round. As a result of the ailment, Machac won the match via a walkover, and will next play the fifth seed Andrey Rublev of Russia in the quarterfinals on Friday. The other three quarterfinals have the second seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy against the ninth seed Arthur Fils of France, the seventh seed Cameron Norrie of Great Britain against Rafael Jodar of Spain, and Nuno Borges of Portugal against Hamad Medjedovic of Serbia.
This past weekend, Alcaraz reached the final of the Monte Carlo Masters before losing to new world number one Jannik Sinner of Italy by a score of 7-6, 7-5. Alcaraz won the 2022 Barcelona Open and 2023 Barcelona Open.
