World quantity two Carlos Alcaraz retired from the Rio Open on Tuesday after struggling a proper ankle damage early in his opening match towards Brazilian Thiago Monteiro.
Alcaraz, the highest seed within the singles draw, was dealing with Brazilian wild card Thiago Monteiro within the first spherical. Through the first sport, Alcaraz returned a serve and commenced working laterally again to the center of the courtroom.
Monteiro aimed his subsequent shot behind Alcaraz, and when the Spaniard tried to cease on a dime, his ankle rolled and he fell to the bottom.
“These things happen, even more so on clay, it was not a problem of the court, I got injured as I switched direction. That happens in this kind of surface,” Alcaraz mentioned.
“I got here again to the sport to see whether or not I might keep it up or not. I spoke to the physio on the courtroom and we determined collectively I ought to proceed to see if this is able to get higher.
“It didn’t happen, so we chose to be careful and abandon due to precaution,” he mentioned.
The retirement at 1-1 meant Monteiro superior to the second spherical the place he’ll face his compatriot Felipe Meligeni Alves for a spot within the quarterfinals.
The Spanish participant mentioned his docs mentioned the damage was not severe however he does really feel ache when he walks and could have medical scans on Wednesday.
Monteiro helped Alcaraz return to the bench, the place he received his ankle taped. Alcaraz tried to proceed the match, successful the primary sport however being damaged within the second.
“This is so strange,” Monteiro mentioned in a post-match press convention. “It was the second point of the match. On the court it didn’t look so serious, but then I saw it in the big screen and it was a bad twist. Now I can only cheer for him to recover. He is a star, a dominant one in the new generation.”
Alcaraz, received the Rio Open in 2022 and completed runner-up final yr when he misplaced the ultimate to Nice Britain’s Cameron Norrie.
The 20-year-old, who received the Argentina Open title in 2023, was eradicated by Chile’s Nicols Jarry within the semifinals in Buenos Aires.
The 2022 U.S. Open winner and 2023 Wimbledon champion is likely one of the largest stars in males’s tennis, and it stays to be seen if his ankle damage will probably be extreme sufficient to sideline him for any size of time.