US Open - Sinner OUT, Alcaraz IN!

**Catherine Whitaker** (0:11)
Hello, and welcome to The Tennis Podcast, an emergency, unplanned tennis podcast following two bombshell news drops from the tennis universe in the last 24 hours, or more specifically from the Sincaraz universe. We can narrow it down to that. The tennis lords giveth and they taketh away, starting with the Instagram and other social media platforms post, but it was Instagram where I saw it, the incredible Carlos Alcaraz in a basketball top graphic, with the announcement via a joint post with renowned football journalist and influencer Fabrizio Romano.
Not sure how we deal with that element of things, but anyway. The news that he will be playing the US Open. He also posted a very comical video saying, here we go. Romano's catchphrase. Didn't bother to use one of those influencer microphones or anything like that. Just raw dogged it. It was very, very amusing. And he did an emoji of the American flag and a plane. This will of course be his first Grand Slam since the Australian Open and it will be his first professional tennis since retiring with a wrist injury at the Barcelona Open on April the 14th. So we see that announcement yesterday. We're all guns blazing. We could not possibly be more pumped for the US Open. And then earlier today, we get the announcement from Jannik Sinner that he is withdrawing from the US Open. He said, even though I've been working hard with my team and my medical staff, we have now had to make the difficult decision that I will not be able to compete at the US Open this year. We've been back on court in Monte Carlo over the last couple of days, and I've realised that I still need more time to recover from my right knee issue. Now, obviously very sad and disappointed as New York has a special place in my heart. And Sinner has not played since winning Wimbledon on July the 12th.
David, tennis comes at you fast.

**David Law** (2:22)
Cool. I mean, we've had some weeks in this sport, haven't we? This one is right up there.
Yeah, I really didn't know what to make of this last couple of days, because when the Alcaraz thing dropped, I'm still a little bit sceptical just generally about that, because it just seems crazy to me to be trying to come back for four or five months after not playing and then start at the US Open. But you two seemed up for it, so I thought, okay, well, maybe I better get up for it. Then Jannik Sinner polled, and I must say the way that had been trending, the kind of silence that we'd heard in the last few days since he withdrew from Cincinnati, and then just one or two words from Italian media, and one or two people that we know internally, it just didn't feel like this was really going so well for Sinner, and I don't think he's the type of guy that is gonna take risks, and I think he's right not to. I think he might have tried to play and hope it got better, or something like that, and I say that without knowing the severity of it, really, but I think if you've got doubts, it's just not worth it, and that's what worries me a bit about Alcaraz, but you've got to, you've also, you've got, if you've been out as long as he has, you've got to start somewhere, so we'll see, won't we? We'll see.

**Catherine Whitaker** (3:54)
His attitude, Carlos Alcaraz, this is David, his attitude to the injury up to this point, one of extreme caution, has that not comforted you a bit, or eased some of your concerns and anxieties about this comeback? I was expecting you to be more pumped.

**David Law** (4:14)
Look, I suppose it has, I think it sounds as though he's been sensible, but then I don't know the severity of it.

**Catherine Whitaker** (4:23)
But we know what the injury is, don't we? He has told us what the injury is, and he hasn't needed surgery.

**David Law** (4:30)
But I've just, I've seen so much of Jack Draper trying to make comebacks and sound upbeat and sound bullish and try to push on and not be able to that, or any part of, anybody dealing with that part of the body, wrist, arm, all those tendons in there, the horror stories that we've seen in the past, make me anxious really for tennis players generally, and somebody who hits the ball with such violence like Carlos Alcaraz does, there's going to be a lot of stress on that part of the body. And I look, I absolutely hope that it is caution. I'd be fascinated to know how close he got to playing those other major tournaments, because you know he would have been just straining at the leash to get on the course, and get out there, and he must have missed it so much. But I can't help but just worry about it, because the temptation might have got too much for him. It might have been more sensible to target the Australian open, and work his way into that with the next two or three months. But look, I'm not his doctor, I'm not his trainer, I'm not his manager, I'm not him.