Alcaraz Enters US Open as Defending Champion After Four Months Out
The defending champion is on the entry list after four months out with a right wrist injury — whether he actually plays is expected to be settled this week.
By Alexan SL · August 17, 2026 · 3 min read
NEW YORK, August 17, 2026 — Carlos Alcaraz is on the entry list for the 2026 US Open, where he is the defending champion, having not played a competitive match since April 14. Whether he plays at all is expected to be settled this week.
Alcaraz withdrew from the Barcelona Open that day with a right wrist injury, after winning his opening match against Otto Virtanen and before he was due to face Tomas Machac. He went on to miss Madrid, Rome and Roland-Garros. On May 19 he announced he would also skip Queen's Club and Wimbledon, saying his recovery was progressing but that he was not ready to compete — his first pair of consecutive Grand Slam absences since 2020. He did not play the Canadian Open, and on August 4 organizers announced his withdrawal from Cincinnati, where he was the defending champion.
He has since been training at increasing intensity in Murcia, including a session this week with Holger Rune that Spanish outlet Punto de Break described as very intense. The same report said his team expected to decide within days whether he would travel to New York. No comeback date has been announced.
As of the official rankings published August 17, Alcaraz remains No. 2 on 8,160 points. Jannik Sinner is No. 1 on 13,450, a gap of 5,290 points, and has held the top ranking since April 14. The 1,000 points Alcaraz earned for winning Cincinnati last year come off his total this month, and the ATP live rankings already place him third, behind Alexander Zverev. A third seeding would put a meeting with Sinner in the semifinals rather than the final. Seedings will be set from the rankings published August 24, and the draw ceremony is August 27.
Sinner defended his Wimbledon title on July 12, beating Zverev 6-7(7-9), 7-6(7-2), 6-3, 6-4 for his second title there and his fifth major. He was 44-3 for the season at that point. In May he won Rome to complete the career Golden Masters, becoming the second man after Novak Djokovic to win all nine Masters 1000 events; that title was also his sixth in a row at the level, a streak that began in Paris last autumn. Zverev won Roland-Garros for his first major and reached his first Wimbledon final.
Alcaraz's one major of 2026 came in January, when he won the Australian Open at 22, beating Djokovic in the final to become the youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam. He won the 2025 US Open without losing a set before the final, beating Reilly Opelka, Mattia Bellucci, Luciano Darderi, Arthur Rinderknech, Jiri Lehecka and Djokovic, then defeating Sinner 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Djokovic, 39, is in the field and has 24 major titles, the most recent of them at the 2023 US Open. He beat Sinner in the Australian Open semifinals in January and lost to him in the Wimbledon semifinals on July 10. On August 15, in his first match since, he lost in the second round in Cincinnati to Thiago Agustín Tirante, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, appearing to vomit during the second set and taking a medical timeout. He said afterward that it was a health condition that had troubled him for a couple of years, particularly in heat and humidity, and that he did not expect to return to the tournament.
Fan Week runs August 23-29. The main draw begins Sunday, August 30. The men's semifinals are Friday, September 11, and the men's final is Sunday, September 13.