Carlos Alcaraz made a telling revelation following his Madrid Masters exit as the Spanish tennis star shared that he was constantly thinking
about whether or not he would “feel something” in his forearm when hitting shots.
After winning the Indian Wells Masters and being a Miami Masters quarterfinalist, Alcaraz suffered a setback at the start of the clay season when
a forearm injury derailed his plans to start his clay season at the Monte Carlo Masters and Barcelona.
Then, Alcaraz’s Madrid participation was also a doubt but the two-time Grand Slam champion managed to play.
In Madrid, Alcaraz started with pretty routine back-to-back straight-set wins over Alexander Shevchenko
and Thiago Seyboth Wild but then just barely edged out Jan-Lennard Struff in a marathon three-setter.
After surviving the Struff challenge, Alcaraz returned to the court on Wednesday,
but this he wasn’t lucky enough to survive another three-setter – as Andrey Rublev upset the second-seeded Spaniard 4-6 6-3 6-2 in the Madrid quarterfinal.
“Well, I have to keep going. Right now here in Madrid, while every time that I’m hitting the forehand,
I’m thinking about the forearm, if I’m getting a feeling or not,” Alcaraz said in his press conference after his Madrid exit.
“I have to work hard these days if I want to go to Rome with good feelings, without pain, without thinking about my forearm,
but it’s gonna be a slow process, I guess. I have to be patient in that way.
But right now I leave Madrid with good feelings in the forearm, but I have to do good work.”
Alcaraz: I felt my forearm more against Rublev
As mentioned above, Alcaraz fairly easily got through his opening two matches in Madrid.
But even after those wins, Alcaraz was saying that he was cautious not to aggravate his injury.