Carlos Alcaraz was forced to pull the plug on his Barcelona Open campaign due to a wrist injury, and the setback has impacted his hopes of returning to world No 1.
The Spaniard withdrew before his scheduled second round match against Tomas Machac in Barcelona after sustaining the injury in his opening round win over Otto Virtanen.
In a press conference announcing his withdrawal, Alcaraz said: “It’s a more serious injury than we all expected, and I have to listen to my body so it doesn’t affect me in the future.
“With great sadness, I have to return home and recover as quickly as possible for the upcoming tournaments.”
Alcaraz, who has spent 66 total weeks as the ATP world No 1, saw his sixth and most recent stint in top spot end at 22 weeks after he lost to Jannik Sinner in the Monte Carlo Masters final last week.
Sinner’s victory in Monte Carlo earned him 1,000 ATP ranking points and lifted him above Alcaraz into the world No 1 position.
The Italian — who is in his 67th week at the pinnacle of the rankings — has 13,350 points, which put him 110 points ahead of Alcaraz in this week’s ATP Rankings.
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However, Alcaraz was defending 330 points this week as he was a runner-up at the 2025 Barcelona Open 12 months ago, meaning he effectively started the week with 12,910 points.
If Alcaraz had secured the 500 points available for winning the title in Barcelona, he would have jumped to 13,410 points and overtaken Sinner to return to world No 1.
The 22-year-old’s opening round win earned him 50 points and increased his tally to 12,960 points — moving him to within 390 points of Sinner.
Alcaraz’s withdrawal means he has been unable to add further to his tally, which ended his hopes of reclaiming the No 1 ranking in Barcelona.
Sinner will, therefore, retain top spot until at least after the Madrid Open — which will begin on 21 April and conclude on 3 May.
Alcaraz’s revelation that his injury was “more serious” than anticipated has cast some doubt over his participation in Madrid, but he is yet to confirm whether he will feature.
If Alcaraz is able to play the Masters 1000 event in the Spanish capital, he will have the opportunity to return to world No 1 after the tournament.
The seven-time Grand Slam winner is not dropping any points in Madrid as he missed last year’s edition of the event, which means he could increase his points tally by up to 1,000 points.
Sinner is in the same position as he was unable to compete at the 2025 Madrid Open. The 24-year-old could guarantee that he remains the world No 1 by claiming the Madrid title, or by matching Alcaraz’s result.
Following his victory in Monte Carlo, Sinner revealed he was yet to decide whether he will compete in Madrid.
“I’ll take two or three days off, then I’ll evaluate with my team whether to go to Madrid or not,” the four-time major winner said.
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