Carlos Alcaraz has been cleared to compete at the 2024 Roland Garros, but he is still cautious about using his thunderous forehand at maximum power in his first-round match.
The draw for this year's French Open was revealed on Thursday. Third seed Alcaraz will face American lucky loser J.J. Wolf on Sunday on Philippe-Chatrier. It will be their first career meeting at the Tour level.
Although the Spaniard is the clear favorite to win the match, his preparation for the tournament has been excruciating and hardly ideal. Alcaraz has played in one warm-up tournament, which was on home soil in Madrid, where he surrendered his crown to Andrey Rublev in the last eight.
A forearm injury scuppered his plans at the start of the clay-court swing in Monaco, where he withdrew from the Monte-Carlo Masters. He did not play in Barcelona because of the same setback.
Alcaraz took precautionary measures after Marid, including missing the Italian Open. He also abstained from lifting a tennis racket for precisely two weeks. In training, he mostly incorporated shadow swings into his practices to keep his lower body in shape.
With Roland Garros rapidly approaching, it was quite concerning not to see him engage in any intense practice match. That was until last week when he trained with a racket in his hand while still wearing a protective arm sleeve.
Ahead of his opening match on Sunday, Alcaraz spoke at his pre-tournament press conference, stating that he is still unaware of the nature of his forearm issue because he's always forgetful when told. He has also revealed that he is playing pain-free but is not tempted to hit the forehand at full throttle.
"I’m a little bit scared about hitting every forehand 100%. When I do the tests, when I’m talking with the doctors, my team, they explain to me what I have, I listen to them, but I forget."
"What I remember is they told me that this is not going to be serious, it’s not going to take too much time. But here we are, recovering. I’m not feeling any pain in the practices when I step on the court. But I’m still thinking about it when I’m hitting forehands."