2 min readMay 19, 2026 10:38 PM IST
Two-time Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz pulled out of the most-prestigious tennis event of the year, the Wimbledon, due to a wrist injury that has been bothering him for a while.
Alcaraz is a two-time Wimbledon champion, having won back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024, beating Novak Djokovic in both finals. He lost in the final last year to Italian ace Jannik Sinner.
“My recovery is going well and I’m feeling much better,” Alcaraz posted on his social media accounts on Tuesday while announcing his decision to not play at Wimbledon, “but unfortunately I’m still not ready to compete.”
The injury on his racquet-holding wrist is a remnant of the Barcelona Open last month. Alcaraz was also forced to pull out of the French Open, which starts this weekend. Alcaraz won the clay-court tournament the last two years.
Alcaraz has already won a Grand Slam title this year: he breezed to the Australian Open title at the start of the year to become the youngest man ever to win all four major titles in tennis.
“They are two truly special tournaments for me and I will miss them a lot,” Alcaraz said of missing Wimbledon and the warmup event at Queen’s Club in London. ”We’ll keep working to come back as soon as possible!”
Missing out on two Grand Slams in a row is likely to lead to him slipping further behind in the rankings points race to Italy’s Sinner. Sinner had unseated Alcaraz as the world’s top ranked male player last month. Sinner has also won the past six Masters 1,000 tournaments, including three in the past five weeks.
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Sinner and Alcaraz have carved up a nice rivalry between themselves in the post-Federer vs Nadal era. The past nine men’s major singles titles have been split between Alcaraz and Sinner, with the Spaniard winning five of them.
(With inputs from AP)
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