Carlos Alcaraz lifts lid over major injury concern ahead of Wimbledon 2023 after Hurlingham Classic withdrawal

Going into Wimbledon, Carlos Alcaraz retained his World No. 1 position in the ATP rankings and is also the top-seeded player in the tournament this year. He climbed back to pole position in the rankings after defeating Alex de Minaur in the final of the Queen’s Club Championship, winning 6-4 6-4.

The Spaniard had lost his no. 1 spot to Novak Djokovic after the French Open final. The Spaniard has already appeared twice at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, and was joined by coach Juan Carlos Ferrero and his physiotherapist Juanjo Lopez. It was the second consecutive day as he came to the venue for a physiotherapy and stretching session.

On Wednesday, he had a two-hour session, where he also met Djokovic. During the session, he could be seen doing exercises on his right thigh, where he injured himself during the Queen’s final. He also calmed down rumours that he wasn’t fit for Wimbledon, and said, ‘everything is fine’.

The 20-year-old also made a last-minute change to his Wimbledon preparations, skipping a pre-tournament event and cited injury concern as the reason reportedly. He was set to play one last event, the Hurlingham Classic, where he was slated to face Dominic Thiem on Friday. He had also earlier withdrawn from his first match at the event, where he was scheduled to face Holger Rune on July 29.

The Queen’s Club Championship was the third grass court event of his career and first outside of Wimbledon. The victory in the final made him the youngest-ever to have a title on all three surfaces since Lleyton Hewitt (19 years and three months), and it also saw him retain his World no. 1 spot.

After winning the Queen’s title, Alcaraz also spoke about Djokovic being the main favourite to win in Wimbledon. Speaking to the media, he said, “Honestly, I have a lot of confidence now coming into Wimbledon. I ended up the week playing at a high level, so right now I feel one of the favourites to win Wimbledon. Well, I am coming now (to play) Wimbledon with a lot of confidence, that’s obvious, but I saw a statistic that Novak has won more matches at Wimbledon than any top-20 player.”