A scary moment for Carlos Alcaraz turned out to be nothing more than that on Friday, as the Spaniard had his right knee looked at during his win over Italy’s Luciano Darderi, and ended up winning all the remaining games that he played once he returned from his medical timeout.
During the second set of an entertaining tussle with the No.32 seed, which was largely dominated by Alcaraz, the 2022 US Open champion said he felt some pain when he was broken in the seventh game of the second set. He spoke with the trainer, who proceeded to do a lot of massage to his right thigh, and that was that.
“After five, six points, it was gone,”
Carlos Alcaraz
Alcaraz ended up winning the final eight games of the match to prevail, 6-2, 6-4, 6-0.
The victory marked his 20th US Open win and his 80th career win at the Grand Slams. He is 80-13 overall, and only two players have reached their 80th Grand Slam win faster in the Open Era: John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg.
“It was just that game that he broke my serve, on the last point after the serve, the first step,” Alcaraz said. “I just felt something in the knee that was bothering me.”
Alcaraz said after five or six points he was back to normal and feeling no pain – crisis averted.
“After five, six points, it was gone,” he said.
“I was worried after [it happened]. That’s why I asked for the physio, but it was nothing serious, so I just [did it] as a precaution. After that, I didn’t feel it anymore, and it was good. So it’s nothing serious.”
