Alcaraz Returns from Four-Month Wrist Layoff, Eyes US Open Defence
Carlos Alcaraz says winning the 2026 US Open "is possible" despite returning from a four-month injury layoff that kept him off court since April. The defending champion, seeded No. 2 at Flushing Meadows this year, faces Russia's Roman Safiullin in the first round — the first serious test of his right wrist since he injured it at the Barcelona Open in April 2026, according to BBC Sport.
Alcaraz's 2026 has been a story of two halves. He reached the Monte Carlo final on clay, then damaged his right wrist shortly after at the Barcelona event. The injury cost him the entire European summer swing: he missed the French Open, where he was the defending champion, and then Wimbledon — two of the sport's biggest prizes, gone in a single season. He began hitting again just over four weeks before the US Open, leaving no time for warm-up tournaments or a gradual competitive return (The Guardian). For a player who thrives on rhythm and match sharpness, jumping straight into best-of-five-tennis — the longer format used only at Grand Slams — at the highest intensity is a considerable ask.
What makes the 23-year-old's confidence hard to dismiss is his résumé. His 2026 Australian Open victory made him the youngest man in tennis history to complete a career Grand Slam — winning all four major titles at least once. That record now sits alongside the reality that he has barely competed in months. The draw has done him no favours either: Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic are placed in the same half of the US Open bracket, meaning the two could meet before the final rather than in it (ATP Tour).
For tennis fans, the question is straightforward but genuinely open. Can a player of Alcaraz's talent find his range quickly enough over five-set matches on a hard court that rewards aggression and explosive movement? His first-round opponent, Safiullin, is the kind of baseliner who will make Alcaraz hit ball after ball from the back of the court — exactly the sort of prolonged rally that tests a wrist still regaining trust.
Alcaraz has never lacked belief. The doubt, for once, is physical. The US Open begins with its defending champion present, seeded, and talking like a contender — but carrying a question mark no seed can protect him from.
