Alcaraz wrist healed: skips Montreal, targets Cincinnati

An unstrung racket frame in his hand, a bandage across the wrist, and a swing that made no sound at all. That is what Alcaraz’s return to the practice court looked like a few weeks ago, closer to a drill for muscle memory than a training session for the best player of his generation. Anyone watching those clips would have struggled to believe that talk of August made any sense.

Now it does. After an examination by doctor Angel Ruiz-Cotorro, the news the Spanish camp had been waiting three months for finally arrived: the injured right wrist is completely healed. Ruiz-Cotorro is not a random name in this story. He is the doctor who guided Rafael Nadal for years through everything Nadal’s body went through, so a sentence from him carries a weight in Spain that no press officer can match.

What followed that confirmation caught part of the public by surprise. After talks with his team and his doctors, Alcaraz decided to skip the Montreal tournament as well. The Canadian Open was the logical way into the hard court swing, but a healed wrist and a wrist ready for five matches in a week are not the same thing. For now the focus is on gradually increasing the workload in practice, with no date being forced.

The return is therefore aimed at Cincinnati, the Masters played from August 13 to 23. If that goes without problems, the US Open follows, where Alcaraz defends his title.

Three months without a match, and the calendar does not wait

The numbers are unforgiving. He picked up the injury, tenosynovitis of the right wrist, in mid-April at the tournament in Barcelona. He has not played a single official match since April 14. He wrote off Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros, then Queen’s and Wimbledon too. That is not a break, that is half a season.

And while he was counting days, Jannik Sinner was stacking wins. By defending his Wimbledon title the Italian reached a season record of 44-3 and a fifth Grand Slam trophy at the age of 24. Three losses in seven months, with no rival genuinely pushing him. The rivalry that was supposed to define this decade has existed only on paper for the past three months.

That is why one practice clip on Instagram earlier in July made more noise than any official statement. The way he struck his forehand raised concerns among analysts that the comeback was further away than had been thought. It turned out to be a phase rather than a forecast, but it shows how fine the line is when it comes to the wrist of a player whose entire forehand is built on wrist explosion.

Can Alcaraz find his form in time for the US Open?

Cincinnati gives him ten days of matches before New York at the very most, and only if he goes deep. Realistically, he will start the US Open with perhaps four or five official matches in his legs after four months of nothing. Serve timing, the feel for the ball on break point, stamina in a fifth set, none of that comes back in practice. It comes back through losses.

Then again, Alcaraz has already shown that long layoffs bother him less than they would bother others. He is 23 years old with seven Grand Slam titles, and New York has always been a court where he felt at home. Skipping Montreal is not a sign of weakness. It is a message that nobody in his team wants to rescue this season, they want to protect the next one.

The first real answer arrives on August 13 in Cincinnati. Is skipping Montreal shrewd arithmetic, or was that Masters his last chance to find a rhythm before the US Open?