The year 2022 (however, one to mark for the results and victories achieved) for Carlos Alcaraz will end with two defeats. The Spanish tennis player was unable to make an impact in the last phase of the season due to an injury suffered at the Masters 1000 in Paris-Bercy, just a few weeks before the prestigious Nitto ATP Finals, which he reluctantly had to skip.
The instrumental examinations carried out by the Iberian identified an oblique tear in the abdominal area, with a not very short recovery time to return to optimal physical condition. The 19-year-old phenomenon, who finished the year at number one in the ATP world rankings thanks to his triumph at the US Open (his last Grand Slam played), has returned to the courts to play the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
The Murcian could not shine in this sporting event, which faced some of the best tennis players currently on the ATP circuit. Alcaraz suffered a defeat against the Russian Andrey Rublev in his official debut in the competition, getting only three games and without showing great progress from the point of view of recovering from his physical problem.
There was little reaction in the match played against the Norwegian Casper Ruud, but even so he lost with a final score of 6-1 and 6-4. However, the athlete led by Juan Carlos Ferrero will have time to return to optimal conditions, given the distance (not too long) that separates him from the Australian Open, in mid-January.
Carlos has now accumulated 15 weeks at the top of the standings, coming very close to the record of Russian Daniil Medvedev (16). In a short time, therefore, the Spaniard will surpass the former number one and winner of the Us Open 2021 in this special classification.
Lendl praises Alcaraz
A true living tennis legend with his 94 career titles, Andy Murray’s current coach, Ivan Lendl, returned in Craig Shapiro’s latest podcast on the mad rise of Carlos Alcaraz. And obviously, Lendl particularly appreciated the world number one.
“Alcaraz is very good and he will continue to improve for a while. I do not know. I don’t look at things that way. I know that Carlos Alcaraz is very well coached. He has a great team around him. These guys are very, very good at what they do, Spaniards.
And Juan Carlos Ferrero is fantastic and they teach him well, they teach him the right things, they teach him all the protocols. He is an extremely polite young man. It is awesome. The Spaniards are doing something very well. The French do it too. They retain their old pros and integrate them into the programs.”
