Carlos Alcaraz’s withdrawal from next week’s Rotterdam Open may have been inevitable after his emotional Australian Open win, but it came as a hammer blow to a former Wimbledon champion.
Alcaraz confirmed he will not be defending his title in Rotterdam after he became the youngest player in tennis history to complete a collection of all four Grand Slam titles by beating Novak Djokovic in his Melbourne final in four sets.
It was a moment of tennis history and a trigger for the 22-year-old to inform his agent that he would not be leading the field in the ATP 500 event in Rotterdam next week.
Now 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek has revealed the chain of events that saw Alcaraz confirm he would not be returning to Rotterdam, as he spoke on an upcoming edition of the Off Court with Greg podcast.
Krajicek, who is a long-time tournament director in Rotterdam, was watching Alcaraz play his Australian Open semi-final against Alexander Zverev last Friday.
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“When I saw him on Friday and he was cramping against Zverev, I was already like, worried,” said Krajicek.
“Then I had to turn off my phone and found out later what happened. Not only did he win, but he won four games in a row, so I was like, okay, this is going to be difficult.
“If you had lost, you don’t have the emotion of winning that Grand Slam and you have two more days to recover. I thought that would still be a pretty good chance he was going to play [in Rotterdam]. But when he made the final, I thought it would be difficult.
“So Monday morning, I got the message from his agent and yeah. I was a little bit expecting it, but I wish I was sleeping for one more hour because I didn’t want to see that message!
“But it was not a big surprise. It is unbelievably draining and having the cramps and then still coming back two days later, even though it was a relatively easy final physically compared to the semis and it was only 15 degrees.”
Alcaraz’s presence in any tournament adds so much to the cast list as not only is he the biggest name in tennis right now, but he is also one of the highest-profile athletes in the world.
He would have walked away from a big appearance fee to play in this ATP 500 event, but it was the right decision for a player who will need time to compute what he has achieved before he looks to return to action.
There was a further blow for the Rotterdam tournament when Alexander Zverev also confirmed he was withdrawing after his epic semi-final clash against Alcaraz, but there is still a strong field set to play in on elf the best indoor events on the ATP Tour.
Alex de Minaur, Félix Auger-Aliassime and Alexander Bublik are set to play in Rotterdam, with Britain’s Jack Draper also set to make his return to ATP Tour action in the tournament after he made his first appearance since last year’s US Open in the Davis Cup on Thursday.
As for Alcaraz, he is set to return to action in Qatar later this month, where he is expected to be joined by world No 2 Sinner and world No 3 Djokovic, in what will also be their first post-Australian Open tournaments.
Fellow top-10 stars Felix Auger-Aliassime and Alexander Bublik are also currently entered into the event, as are former world No 1 Daniil Medvedev and defending champion Andrey Rublev.
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