"I preferred to retire, I have ATP Finals" - Alcaraz trying to avoid major injury in Paris
ATP
Carlos Alcaraz explained why he retired in the middle of a tie-break in his quarter-final match against Holger Rune at the 2022 Paris Masters.
Alcaraz was forced to retire from his quarter-final match at the 2022 Paris Masters. The young Spaniard was challenged by his teenage friend from Denmark.
Rune managed to outplay the reigning World No. 1 in the first set of the match 6-3, and after nothing could separate the two, a tie-break had to decide the second set of the match.
At 3-1 for his opponent in the tie-break, Alcaraz walked to the net, indicating that he wouldn't continue. He retired because of an abdominal injury, and after the match, the 19-year-old explained his decision.
Alcaraz explained that he started feeling more and more pain, and he didn't want to push himself to possibly worsen the injury even more. That's why he has decided to retire, even though he was still in contention for the win.
"At the end of the set, it was wrong. It was getting wrong and I preferred to retire and see it, and take care [of] it. I feel the abdominal in so many movements. Yeah, I was thinking about it. Playing like that with some problems and some things in my mind, it's better to retire."
The Spaniard's retirement came also because he has one clear focus and that is the ATP Finals, where he never played before. Last year, Alcaraz triumphed at the Next Gen ATP Finals, and this year, the youngest World No. 1 in the ATP Rankings will want to repeat his success also in Turin.
"I have the Nitto [ATP] Finals. I have some tests on how it's going to be before Turin. But right now I'm focused to try to get better in the abdominal and trying to be at 100 per cent in Turin."
