Carlos Alcaraz Reportedly Set To Miss Spain's Next Davis Cup Tie
News
Carlos Alcaraz likely won't help his country in the upcoming Davis Cup tie against Switzerland.
With the 2025 season already running, many players are starting to shape their schedules for the season, even though the vast majority of those were made already during the off-season.
Still, there are sometimes decisions to be made, and it seems that Alcaraz made his decision about Spain's upcoming Davis Cup tie. The 21-year-old Spaniard was part of the Spanish Davis Cup last year in Malaga when he witnessed Rafael Nadal's retirement.
In fact, he was on the tennis court with Marcel Granollers in the match that officially ended the 22-time major winner's tennis career. However, according to a report by MARCA, both of these players will likely miss Spain's upcoming Davis Cup tie.
Like the vast majority of the nations trying to qualify for the Davis Cup Finals, Spain has to compete in the Qualifiers. This year, the country was drawn against Switzerland in the first round of the competition.
The tie will take place on the Swiss soil. It will be played at the Swiss Tennis Arena in Biel, Switzerland, on an indoor hard court. The tie will be played on February 1st and 2nd, right after the Australian Open.
But Spain's team captain, David Ferrer, might have a difficult job choosing the team for the tie. MARCA reports that Alcaraz will be one of the three players who should be missing from Spain's team.
The other two are Roberto Bautista Agut and Marcel Granollers, who is a doubles specialist. For Alcaraz, the reason is likely very straightforward, and it's the date of the tie.
He is one of the favorites to win the Australian Open, which means that he might play a match in Melbourne on January 26th. Should he win the title, the young Spaniard might be busy with different photoshoots and interviews for the following day, returning to Europe a few days later.
That would force him to travel directly to Switzerland without too much rest. On top of that, on February 3rd, the Rotterdam Open, which is an ATP 500 event, starts.
Alcaraz signed up to play the Rotterdam Open in 2025, which further impacts his chances of competing at the Davis Cup Qualifiers.
So far, the four-time major winner played eight Davis Cup matches for his country. He won six of those. In singles, he lost only one out of six matches that he played.
That loss came against Felix Auger-Aliassime in 2022. Back then, Alcaraz traveled from the US Open, which he won, directly to Europe to represent his country. His loss to Auger-Aliassime is further proof that doing so isn't very sensible, given the challenging schedule.
Even without Alcaraz, Ferrer should still be able to pick a strong team capable of beating Switzerland. The country's two highest-ranked players on the ATP Tour are 118th Alexander Ritschard and 134th Jerome Kym.
On the other hand, Spain could be represented by Pedro Martinez, Roberto Carballes Baena, Jaume Munar, and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, all of whom are ranked in the Top 100.
If Spain wins, their final-round opponents will be either Novak Djokovic's Serbia or Holger Rune's Denmark.
