Alcaraz planning more breaks in ‘impossible’ tennis schedule

Carlos Alcaraz has taken a swipe at the hectic tennis calendar and said he will skip tournaments from now on.

Alcaraz is making his comeback from more than four months out with a wrist injury to defend his US Open title.

The Spaniard pointed to the absences of other top stars as evidence that the schedule is too demanding and will keep causing injuries.

World number one Jannik Sinner and British star Jack Draper are notable absentees at Flushing Meadows along with Holger Rune, Joao Fonseca and a host of other players.

“I took more (time off) than I wanted, to be honest, but you know, seeing how tight is the calendar, obviously I don’t want to have this break because (of) an injury,” said Alcaraz after coming from a set down to beat Jaime Faria in the second round.

“But in the future, I’m going to take some breaks, some long breaks.

Maybe not four months, but one month, two months, missing some tournaments, because it’s impossible to play them all.

“I think they (are) adding more important tournaments. You know, in a way they (are) making us play. You can say ‘no’. You can keep one or two.

“You can decide your calendar, but there are some Masters 1000s, some grand slams, and we’ve been out playing 40 weeks if we got to play every mandatory tournament that the ATP, you know, required us to play.

“So it’s impossible, and we are seeing a lot of players getting injured, a lot of players getting tired. If they don’t do anything about it, we are going to see even more in the future.

“But for me, taking this break because (of) an injury, it wasn’t that good, but you know, what I’m going to say is I’m going to take some breaks and miss some tournaments in the future, for sure.” Alcaraz plays Chinese world number 113 Wu Yibing in round three on Friday.

Alcaraz took his time to warm up, but finished in red-hot form as he beat Faria to reach the third round.

World number 72 Faria took the first set off the still ring-rusty Alcaraz, who is playing his first tournament since suffering the wrist injury which kept him out of the French Open and Wimbledon.

But the defending champion found his rhythm and won the next eight games to take the second set and roar 2-0 ahead in the third.

Spanish second seed Alcaraz allowed his Portuguese opponent to win just five more games in a commanding 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 victory.

Alcaraz would become the first man in the open era to successfully defend a grand slam title on all three surfaces if he wins the US Open.

Combustible Russian Andrey Rublev almost threw a racket into his own face as he crashed out to Daniel Merida.

Rublev, the 23rd seed, had just dropped serve in the fourth set when he sat down and angrily bounced his racket into the ground.

The racket reared up and spun towards Rublev’s face, forcing the 28-year-old to duck out of the way, before sheepishly getting up and fetching it from behind his chair.

Spaniard Merida went on to clinch a 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 and a place in the third round.

American eighth seed Ben Shelton needed four sets to get past Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz, while highly-rated Spanish youngster Rafael Jodar was knocked out.

The 19-year-old, who started the season ranked 165 and has soared to world number 13, was brought crashing back down to earth with a 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 defeat by Chinese lucky loser Yunchaokete Bu.

Mariano Navone backed up his dramatic win over an ailing Novak Djokovic by knocking out former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini in four sets to set up an all-Argentinian third-round clash with Tomas Martin Etcheverry.