After months of waiting on the sidelines, it finally seemed that Carlos Alcaraz was ready to return. He had shown signs of recovery in the past few weeks, and it felt like only a matter of time before he returned to the court. He was hoping to make a much-awaited return at the Cincinnati Masters, but a setback dashed his plans.

Alcaraz announced his surprise withdrawal from the Masters tournament, which puts his participation in the US Open in serious jeopardy.

“We know Carlos is doing everything he can to get back to playing tournaments as soon as possible,” tournament director Bob Moran said in a statement on Tuesday (via ESPN). “We wish him the best with his recovery and look forward to welcoming him back to Cincinnati in the future.”

The wrist injury has derailed Alcaraz’s season and has led to him missing several important tournaments. This includes both the French Open and Wimbledon. The US Open could soon be added to the list.

Unlike last year, Alcaraz’s name is not present in the entry list for the US Open’s mixed-doubles event. If he does manage to regain fitness by the time the Grand Slam rolls in, then he will enter it without having any match practice on the hard courts.

The Cincinnati Masters could have provided Alcaraz with some confidence and much-needed match practice before the US Open. Having won the tournament last year, the World No. 2 was expected to go on a deep run this year as well. But he will now have to sit on the sidelines once again and witness the action from there.

Alcaraz had gone on quite a run last year at the Cincinnati Masters. He had dropped just two sets on his way to the final and had defeated players like Andrey Rublev and Alexander Zverev on his way. He met Jannik Sinner in the final, but the match didn’t live up to the expectations. This was because Sinner was suffering from a viral illness and decided to retire after losing the first five games of the match. This result saw Alcaraz capture his maiden title in Cincinnati.

After being dominant and maintaining a strong fitness level throughout the 2025 season, no one could have expected that one physical setback would be enough to derail Alcaraz’s season, but that is exactly what has happened. The wrist injury is the most frustrating setback that the 23-year-old has sustained in his career. He has already had a layoff of almost four months, and it will continue even further.

The injury has already seen him miss two Grand Slams, and another one may be added to the tally in the coming weeks. On top of this, he has missed several other important tournaments. His constant absence from the tour has also affected his ranking. The Spaniard’s points tally has dropped significantly because he has had to constantly pull out of tournaments, and his withdrawal from the Cincinnati Masters will also affect his ranking.

Carlos Alcaraz will drop a massive number of points due to his Cincinnati withdrawal

Having won the Cincinnati Masters last year, Alcaraz will have to drop exactly 1000 points for not playing in the upcoming edition of the event. He is currently ranked No. 2 with 8,160 points under his belt. But Zverev stands just 40 points behind him with a tally of 8,120 points.

Alcaraz will drop down to the third position again as he loses 1000 points following his withdrawal from the Cincinnati Masters. But it is unlikely that he will drop any further, as World No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime has a points tally of 4,740. This won’t be the first time that Alcaraz will drop down to the third spot this year. Recently, Zverev had taken over the second spot after reaching the final at Wimbledon.

Additionally, his rival Jannik Sinner has pulled away and has built up a humongous 5,290-point gap between the first and second spot. It will be incredibly hard to dethrone him from the No. 1 spot in the coming months.

Both Sinner and Zverev are also running away from Alcaraz in the race for the 2026 ATP Finals. In fact, Flavio Cobolli is just 630 points behind Alcaraz in the yearly rankings.

Though the rankings will reset after 2026, the Spaniard’s constant loss of points this year will affect him significantly in 2027. It remains to be seen if he will be able to get back in action as the US Open rolls in from August 30.