Tennis news: Carlos Alcaraz out of Australian Open, with Iga Swiatek also in doubt with injury
Australian fans have been robbed of the chance to watch the rising star of tennis, and more could follow — but the real tragedy is it could have been prevented.
Tennis
Don't miss out on the headlines from Tennis. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The withdrawal of rising tennis superstar Carlos Alcaraz from the Australian Open has reignited calls for changes to the farcical timing of the first grand slam of the year.
Still in his teens, the Spanish world No. 1 has become just the latest big-name player to withdraw from the Australian Open after hurting his knee trying to get ready to go again so soon after last season just finished.
His last-minute pull out will rob Aussie tennis fans of witnessing one of the sport’s most exciting players in decades — but the real tragedy is it could have been prevented if it wasn’t for the insane shortened gap between seasons.
As American star Frances Tiafoe put it: “Tennis is brutal. It doesn‘t end.
“It seems like there is a big event around the corner every other day.
“But he‘s gonna be fine. He’s extremely talented and a great player. It sucks that he’s hurt. I’m gonna miss him.”
Held less than a month after Christmas — and right in the middle of the baking hot southern hemisphere summer — the mindless scheduling of the Australian Open has long been a sore point for tennis professionals.
Because they are paid so well, elite players rarely get any sympathy, but the physical and mental toll on their bodies and minds has become overbearing and the Australian Open is one of the biggest culprits.
The tournament’s terrible timing is a throwback to the days when officials were unaware of the twin dangers of global warming and mental health but that excuse doesn’t wash anymore.
If tennis officials ever sat down and started a new grand slam schedule from scratch, anyone who suggested starting the season in Australia in January would be shipped straight off to the loony bin.
It doesn’t make any sense and the players all hate it and it’s no wonder.
To arrive in Australia in time for the United Cup, the latest addition to the already overcrowded calendar, the American team had to make the long flight over on Christmas Day.
In an early nomination for the understatement of the year, American ace Jessica Pegula, the world No 3, said: “That‘s always a tough turnaround for us.”
You can bet Alcaraz won’t be the last big name player to pull out of the Australian Open.
Some stars still haven’t arrived in the country while others have been dropping out of warm-up events like flies as they struggle to get their bodies ready for the gruelling demands of a grand slam.
Nick Kyrgios has already pulled out of two separate events while a tearful Iga Swiatek, the women’s world No. 1, just pulled out of next week’s tournament in Adelaide.
Britain’s 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu remains in doubt for the Australian Open after rolling her ankle in a tournament in Auckland while American legend Venus Williams has already withdrawn from the Melbourne grand slam after injuring herself in the same event in New Zealand - saying she felt like a guinea pig.
ANOTHER AUS OPEN BLOW WITH WOMEN’S NO.1 IN DOUBT
By Callum Dick
As the dust settles on men’s world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz’s shock withdrawal from the Australian Open on Saturday, the women’s No. 1 is also in doubt after pulling out of the Adelaide International 2.
Iga Swiatek was due to join a stacked field for Week 2 at Memorial Drive but has withdrawn from the tournament citing a right shoulder injury.
It comes after the 21-year-old’s shock 6-2 6-2 defeat to world No. 3 Jessica Pegula during their United Cup semi-final clash in Sydney on Friday, which left Swiatek in tears.
The Pole withdrew from Saturday’s United Cup mixed doubles dead rubber and is now out of the Adelaide International 2, just over a week out from the start of the Australian Open.
Swiatek is the overwhelming favourite to win the opening grand slam of 2023.
After losing to eventual champion Ash Barty at last year’s Australian Open, Swiatek compiled one of the most dominant WTA seasons in recent memory, with a 67-9 win-loss record.
She finished more than 6000 rankings points ahead of world No. 2 Ons Jabeur at the end of the year and won both the French Open and US Open.
DJOKOVIC BIG WINNER FROM WORLD NO.1’s WOE
US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz said on Friday he will miss the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the season, after injuring his right leg in training.
“I picked up an injury through a chance, unnatural movement in training,” the 19-year-old Spaniard wrote on his Twitter account.
“I’d worked so hard to get to my best level for Australia but unfortunately I won’t be able to play,” the world’s top-ranked player added.
“It’s tough, but I have to be optimistic, recover and look forward. We’ll see you at the Australian Open in 2024.”
When I was at my best in preseason, I picked up an injury through a chance, unnatural movement in training. This time it's the semimembranosus muscle in my right leg. pic.twitter.com/nJbIlMtGyK
— Carlos Alcaraz (@carlosalcaraz) January 6, 2023
Alcaraz’s withdrawal means defending champion and 22-time major winner Rafael Nadal will be promoted to top seed at the Australian Open which starts in Melbourne on January 16.
Novak Djokovic, the nine-time champion and a 21-time Grand Slam title winner, will move into the top four seedings.
That will mean he cannot face old rival Nadal until the semi-finals at the earliest.
Alcaraz became the world’s youngest world number one since the creation of the ATP rankings in 1973 by winning his first Grand Slam tournament at the US Open last September.
He then became the youngest player in history to finish the year at the top of the world rankings and the first outside of Djokovic, Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray to do so since Andy Roddick in 2003.
However, an abdominal tear forced him to retire in the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters in November which in turn forced him to miss the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin won by Djokovic.
Alcaraz also had to sit out the Davis Cup Finals.
Djokovic will return to the Australian Open after being deported from the country last year over his refusal to be vaccinated.
Alcaraz, who will also miss the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club in Melbourne next week, said recently that 2023 will come with new experiences for him.
“I have to be prepared for that, the pressure. The people, the players as well, are going to have all their eyes on me and I’m going to have to be prepared for that,” he explained in Abu Dhabi last month where he was beaten by top 10 rivals Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev.
“Probably it’s going to help me a little bit to try not to think about the people, the expectations, and the ranking, and that kind of stuff,” he said.
“I’m just going to see myself better, trying to push myself to a high level. Right now I’m focused on myself, on recovering my level.” Last season, Alcaraz captured five titles as he won 57 times in 70 matches. He started 2022 at 32 in the world and made the biggest rise to finish top in 50 years of the rankings.
Alcaraz hit the giant-killing jackpot at Madrid in May when he became the only man to beat both Nadal and Djokovic at the same clay-court event.
When he then broke into the world top five in July, he was the youngest man to do so since 2005.
His coach former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero believes that if Alcaraz stays fit, he is capable of winning 30 Grand Slam titles.
AUSTRALIAN OPEN SAVAGED FOR STANCE ON RUSSIANS
By Julian Linden and Callum Dick
Divisive tennis star Daniil Medvedev insists he will take his place in this month’s Australian Open despite fresh calls for local tournament organisers to ban all Russian players from competing while the war in Ukraine continues to rage.
Medvedev infuriated Australian fans last year when he mocked the intelligence of spectators with a demeaning slur that he has since admitted was “dumb”.
Despite being ranked No. 1 in the world at the time, Medvedev was banned from Wimbledon when British tennis officials took a hardline approach against all Russians after Vladimir Putin’s troops invaded their eastern European neighbour.
Now, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia has reignited the hottest debate in global sport by issuing a powerful statement calling for all Russian players to be booted out of the first grand slam of 2023.
“Russia manipulates sport and sportspeople to project an image to the world, just as Nazi Germany did,” Ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko said.
“They engage in massive doping programs to buy sporting success as part of their propaganda.
“When we allow sportspeople from Russia to participate in the Australian Open, we do exactly what Putin wants.”
Myroshnychenko’s bombshell comments have already set the tone for another highly controversial Australian Open after Novak Djokovic was deported last year because he was unvaccinated.
Under the current regulations in place for the Australian Open, Russian players are allowed to compete – but only as neutral individuals – not as representatives of their homeland.
That means Medvedev is free to play and the hot-headed 26-year-old said that’s exactly what he intends to do.
“I can just follow the rules as a player. It has always been the same,” he said.
“When we were banned from Wimbledon I couldn’t play so I didn’t play.
“I’m a tennis player so all the tournaments I can play all over the world I’m happy to play, I’m happy to show up, to play for the fans and that’s the only thing I can do.”
In a statement to News Corp, Tennis Australia reaffirmed its position that bans players from representing either Russia or Belarus but still allows them to compete as “neutrals.”
“Tennis Australia stands united with the international governing bodies of tennis – the Grand Slams, the ATP and WTA Tours and the ITF – in its condemnation of Russia’s actions and its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” Tennis Australia said.
“Players from Russia and Belarus are only able to compete in international tennis events as individuals – and without flags or country recognition – which will be the case for Australian Open 2023.”
Tennis is using the same approach that many other global sports have adopted, claiming it is unfair to punish individual athletes who have no involvement in the bloody conflict.
But critics say that watered-down policy amounts to nothing more than just a slap on the wrist because it’s a ban in name only.
It’s true that for years now, Russian authorities have been thumbing their noses at the weak punishments they received for state-sponsored doping.
Gold medallists – competing as “Olympic Athletes from Russia” – have brazenly flaunted the unenforced rules by singing their national anthem at medal ceremonies and being feted at the Kremlin by Putin himself.
Only a handful of sporting bodies – but notably the All-England tennis club that runs Wimbledon – have taken a tougher stance and banned Russian athletes from competing as neutrals and Myroshnychenko is calling on Tennis Australia to do the same.
“It doesn’t matter what flag Russian Federation players compete under. It has Ukrainian blood on it,” he said.
“It would be a great shame if Tennis Australia proceeds. It goes against the strong stance that Australia itself – as a government and as a nation that stands up to bullies – has taken in support of Ukraine.
“I request that Tennis Australia reconsider what seems like an unprincipled position and send a strong message to the Kremlin by banning participants from the Russian Federation.”
Myroshnychenko said he hoped to meet with Tennis Australia officials to convince them to change their mind.
At the very least, he said any Russian players who intend to compete in Australia should publicly denounce the war.
“Every missile strike against Ukraine takes place only because Russian citizens are supporting Putin’s regime,” he said.
“If Russians, such as players, do not specifically condemn the war, they are collaborators in that war, whether they wish to admit it or not. There is no place for neutrality in the face of genocidal war crimes.”
Originally published as Tennis news: Carlos Alcaraz out of Australian Open, with Iga Swiatek also in doubt with injury
Major Kyrgios news in Aussie Open statement
While Nick Kyrgios has been busy commentating and promoting his new beer, he’s also been getting ready for a comeback to the tennis court.
‘Very frustrating’: Demon’s injury cloud lingers
Slow progress recovering from a hip injury is threatening to derail Alex de Minaur’s aspirations ahead of the Australian Open next year.
Star refuses to play, attacks umpire
Greek tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas unleashed a fiery outburst as he torched a chair umpire after being hit with a midgame penalty.
‘Raw and edgy’: Kyrgios launches new beer
Move over Foster’s Lager. Tennis ace Nick Kyrgios is launching a new lager the sports star is hoping will put Australian beer on the global map. It’s the latest venture in Kyrgios’ growing fortune off the court.
Tennis star goes nuclear in ugly tirade
An American tennis star has been widely condemned after he launched an expletive outburst at a chair umpire with video going viral.
Tennis star accidentally sparks racism storm
Spanish tennis star Paula Badosa has been slammed on social media after she was accused of making a racist pose in a restaurant.