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carlos alcaraz Has provided a worrying update on his fitness ahead of his first Six Kings Slam match today saudi arabia,
Alcaraz was given a bye in the semi-finals tennisthe biggest money Exhibition program in Riyadh – where each player gets a $1.5m appearance fee and the winner earns $4.5m – and will face Taylor Fritz From 5.30pm BST today, after US Defeated Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-4 in just 59 minutes Quarter finals on Wednesday.
Six-time Grand Slam champion Alcaraz has been struggling with an ankle injury in recent weeks during their opening match At last month’s Japan Open, despite suffering pain, she won the event in Tokyo – coincidentally. Defeated Fritz in the finals.
However, he immediately passed out Next week’s Shanghai Open To allow his body to recover and now he has given a slightly worrying update on his fitness for the Six Kings Slam, where Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic are also competing,
“I am healing the ankle as best I can,” the 22-year-old Spaniard said. “I don’t think, I would say, 100 percent, there’s even a little bit of doubt about it when I’m going on the court.
“But I think there’s been a lot of improvement and I’m going to compete here at the Six Kings Slam and do well.”
Alcaraz was Quick to give credit to your physiotherapist To enable Juanjo Moreno to successfully play through an ankle problem in Tokyo.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I have the best physio in the world, who I trust 100 percent,” Alcaraz insisted after her second-round win at the event. “The work he’s done on the ankle has been great. I’ve been able to play normally, which is great.”
Just nine days before their meeting in the Japan Open final, Fritz defeated Alcaraz 6–3, 6–2 at the Laver Cup in San Francisco – the first time he had got the better of the Spaniard in his professional career, with the record now 4–1 in favor of the youngster.
Alcaraz has been a vocal critic of the tennis program, particularly the Asia Swing, where its difficult nature and grueling conditions caused many players to struggle physically and were forced to retire from matches.
The world No. 1 has openly said he would consider skipping mandatory events to prioritize his health, which has now led to criticism of him happily playing in big-money exhibitions like the Six Kings Slam. But he is adamant on this The circle of critics is very wide.
Alcaraz explained: “I think it’s a discussion that a lot of players and a lot of people are talking about the calendar, how tight it is with a lot of tournaments and two-week tournaments, and then making some, I’m going to say, excuses with exhibitions, how players are complaining about the calendar and then playing some exhibitions.
“All I can say is that it’s really a different format, the conditions are different playing in exhibitions compared to official tournaments, it’s 15, 16 days in a row, there’s so much more focus and it’s physically demanding.
“It’s because we’re just hanging out for a day or two and playing some tennis, and I think that’s great, and I think that’s why we choose exhibitions sometimes.
“Obviously I understand (the criticism), but sometimes people don’t understand us, our opinions. When I see a lot of people complaining about how we’re defending the exhibitions, I don’t understand them because, as I said, it’s not really mentally hard (compared to) when we have longer programs like two weeks or two and a half weeks. It’s really hard.”