WATCH: Alcaraz falls to ground in pain after massive injury scare in Tokyo

Carlos Alcaraz had a very unpleasant experience during his debut at the Japan Open in Tokyo when he injured himself early in the match.

Alcaraz chose a different approach to the start of the Asian swing this year than he did last year. While he competed at the China Open in Beijing in 2024, the Spaniard chose the Japan Open in Tokyo as his first tournament in Asia this year.

Prior to the event, he revealed that the reason wasn't avoiding Jannik Sinner, but instead exploring a new country and a new event. That experience, however, has gone terribly for the 22-year-old Spaniard.

He took on Sebastian Baez in his first match in Tokyo and started well, leading 2-0 early on. After that, he lost two games in a row, as the Argentinian made it 2-2, but that wasn't the worst thing that happened to Alcaraz in the match.

During the first rally of the fifth game, Alcaraz injured what appeared to be his Achilles tendon. He immediately fell to the ground, and the game was stopped, as the top seed clearly needed medical help. He appeared to be in a lot of pain.

The world No. 1 player didn't want to make the injury worse, so he initially didn't move and remained on the court, waiting for the tournament's physio to come and evaluate his injury.

After a short consultation, Alcaraz moved to his bench, where the injury was further evaluated. It seemed that the two-time Wimbledon champion wanted to try continuing, as he didn't feel too much pain when being evaluated. However, he stated that he wanted to do so only with his ankle taped.

After a medical timeout, Alcaraz returned to the court and lost the following game, as he was trying to find his footing. He continued competing, but appeared to be very cautious in his approach.

Alcaraz has a relatively busy schedule in the upcoming weeks. In a week, he is supposed to start at the Shanghai Masters. It's an ATP Masters 1000 tournament, which starts on October 1st.

The six-time Grand Slam champion currently leads the 2025 ATP Race by 2,590 points over Jannik Sinner, but if he had to miss the Shanghai Masters, his chances of finishing the year as the world No. 1 would be impacted.

After that, Alcaraz was supposed to have a few weeks off, with the last ATP Masters 1000 event scheduled to start at the end of October. It's the Paris Masters, which begins on October 27th, so, provided that the Spaniard's injury is not serious, he should certainly be in shape for the last events of the season.

After the event in Paris, Alcaraz plans to compete at the ATP Finals and the Davis Cup Finals, as he recently confirmed during a conversation with Spanish NBA legend Pau Gasol.