World No 1 Carlos Alcaraz is out of the Australian Open with a leg harm

Top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz pulled out of the Australian Open on Friday due to an injured proper leg.

The 19-year-old from Spain wrote on social media that he bought harm “through a chance, unnatural movement in training.”

The yr’s first Grand Slam event begins January 16 at Melbourne Park. The draw is subsequent Thursday.

When I used to be at my finest in preseason, I picked up an harm by way of an opportunity, unnatural motion in coaching. This time it is the semimembranosus muscle in my proper leg. pic.twitter.com/nJbIlMtGyK

— Carlos Alcaraz (@carlosalcaraz) January 6, 2023

Alcaraz received the US Open final September and moved atop the ATP rankings. That allowed him to turn out to be the youngest man to complete a season at No. 1 because the computerized males’s tennis rankings started a half-century in the past.

His rise from No. 32 on the finish of 2021 additionally marked the biggest single-season leap to No. 1.

This is his second important setback in latest months, although. Alcaraz lower brief final season in November after tearing an stomach muscle whereas competing on the Paris Masters. That compelled him to withdraw from the ATP Finals and Davis Cup Finals.

Still, he closed out 2022 with a file of 57-13 and 5 singles titles.

“I’d worked so hard to get to my best level for Australia but unfortunately I won’t be able to play” at a tuneup occasion in Kooyong or the yr’s first Grand Slam event, Alcaraz wrote on Twitter.

“It’s tough, but I have to be optimistic, recover and look forward,” he mentioned.

With Alcaraz out, No. 2 Rafael Nadal — the defending champion in Australia and proprietor of a males’s-record 22 Grand Slam titles — will transfer as much as No. 1 within the seedings for the hard-court event.

The Spaniards turned the primary gamers from the identical nation to assert the highest two spots within the ATP on the shut of a season since Americans Pete Sampras and Michael Chang in 1996.

Alcaraz’s departure additionally removes a possible hurdle for Novak Djokovic as he returns to Australia and tries to win it for a tenth time to assert what can be his twenty second main championship total. Djokovic missed the 2022 Australian Open after being deported from the nation as a result of he was not vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19. He remains to be not vaccinated, however restrictions have eased.