Patrick Mouratoglou is intrigued to see what Carlos Alcaraz’s “low level” is as he prepares to defend his US Open title after more than four months out injured.
The 23-year-old has not played on the ATP Tour since injuring his wrist in mid-April at the Barcelona Open. Many felt he would not feature at Flushing Meadows after pulling out of Cincinnati, but sure enough, the Spaniard is in the draw in New York.
The seven-time major winner eased back into competitive action earlier this week when he partnered Serena Williams in the mixed doubles event, and after two abridged matches in that revamped format, Alcaraz seems to be fit and ready for a title defence.
However, due to his lack of match practice and time out injured, question marks over his fitness will not go away. Indeed, Serena’s former coach Mouratoglou has outlined what indicators will make him “worry” about the third seed.
He said on Instagram, “Is he ready to win the US Open? 99% of players cannot play consistently at the very high level throughout a five-set match. The question that I will ask myself while watching Carlos Alcaraz’s first round is: how low is his low level?
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“Because his high will always be crazy high. The question is, how low is his low, but also how long does the low last? Is it going to be one full set or just one game and then, right after, he’s going to break back, for example?
“So that will be very important. If he checks out for long periods and is very much up and down, then we can worry.”
Alcaraz won’t have much time to ease into the tournament as he faces the dangerous Roman Safiullin in the first round. This year, the Russian has risen more than 100 places in the rankings to 99 after returning from injury.
He made the fourth round at Wimbledon this year, where he took Novak Djokovic to four sets, and the former world No 36 beat Alcaraz in straight sets at the 2023 Paris Masters.
Either way, Alcaraz – who is at 1-1 in his head-to-head with Safiullin – is delighted to be back.
He said earlier this week, “After a couple of months recovering from my injury, I miss everything. I miss this place, I miss the crowd, I miss the ball kids. I think I couldn’t have started at a better place than here, so I feel very grateful. I’m just happy.”
The post Carlos Alcaraz warned over ‘low level’ as Patrick Mouratoglou reveals US Open worry appeared first on Tennis365.
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