Carlos Alcaraz has hit the first real stumbling block of his career with the wrist injury that has kept him out of both Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
The Spaniard suffered the injury at the Barcelona Open in April and it has subsequently kept him out of most of the clay court swing and grass court season.
The World No 2 does not have an expected tennis return date, although his next likely tournament could be the Canadian Open at the beginning of August.
Mark Petchey believes the break from tennis could be good for Alcaraz, although he does expect the star to retire from tennis much earlier than the likes of Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka.
In an interview with The Daily Express, Petchey said: “I don’t think the reset’s going to be so bad for Carlos. It’s a lot, it always looks great from the outside looking at him, but he’s not necessarily somebody who wants to do it the way that everybody thinks that you should do it.
“I think that having this time away will rekindle all the passion that he needs for the game, and I think that he’ll come in fresher than ever. He’s so young, he’s got just acres of room to make things happen for himself,” he added.
Petchey predicted that Alcaraz would hang up his racket far earlier than many tennis players play until today, stating: “Do I think he’s going to have a Novak (Djokovic)-style career? Probably not, but I don’t think he needs to.
“He’s going to give us enough entertainment, he’s going to have enough titles to do it his way, and hopefully, he can feel comfortable enough to be strong enough to know that that’s enough.
It’s testament to Alcaraz’s form prior to his ranking that he has still not dropped a place in the ATP Tour rankings, still sitting at World No 2.
Alexander Zverev, who is the World No 3 currently, would likely have to win Wimbledon in order to overtake Alcaraz in the rankings.
