Feeling good in return from injury, Carlos Alcaraz plans to take more long breaks from tennis

NEW YORK (AP) — Feeling better than he expected after a four-month absence, Carlos Alcaraz is planning to take more breaks during the tennis season.

Alcaraz returned to play at the U.S. Open after being sidelined since April by a right wrist injury. The defending champion advanced to the fourth round Friday with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Wu Yibing.

He said his body feels good and he's had no setbacks after his matches.

“It feels like I've been competing the whole time. So I surprise myself the way that I’m feeling and the way that I’m recovering after every match,” Alcaraz said. “So I’m just really happy about it that I’m able to perform at my best after every match.”

Alcaraz said the injury that forced him to withdraw during the Barcelona Open wasn't caused by playing too much, so taking time off next year wouldn't be for physical reasons. Rather, he believes it would provide him a mental benefit.

“I’m kind of a guy that doesn’t need to play a lot of tournaments,” Alcaraz said, explaining he preferred to be “mentally healthy.”

“I just feel like you can have those moments of time to have a break," he added, "to prepare well for tournaments, to prepare well mentally.”

He debuted a new look Friday, with a white shirt underneath his sleeveless shirt, and has a new celebration, mimicking shooting an arrow.

The wardrobe change was apparently because just one shirt was moving around too much in the previous match.

“I think I saw my nipple too much lately,” he said. “I felt like, you know, I could hide it for at least once match.”

The celebration choice came from his brothers.

“They made me choose to do the arrow or dancing, so I didn’t have any doubts about choosing the arrow,” Alcaraz said. “So I will ask them what’s next if I win the next round.”

Alcaraz played 80 matches last year and was 22-3, including his seventh major championship at the Australian Open, when he was hurt this year. Like many players, he is worried about the length of the tennis season and the number of tournaments.

Unlike many of them, he doesn't have serious ranking or financial concerns if he chooses to skip some events.

“It is like it's tournament after tournament after tournament, and you don’t feel like you are well-prepared coming to some tournaments,” Alcaraz said. “So that’s why I just decided that probably in the future I’m going to take breaks because I want to feel well prepared coming to Grand Slams, Masters 1000s, whatever it is.”

Sitting out for longer periods would surely help the 23-year-old physically, and Alcaraz ultimately thinks it will make him happier.

“I just want to step on the court, have joy, have fun on the court, because sometimes playing such a long season or playing a lot of tournaments week after week, I feel like I’m not playing with joy, I don’t have fun on the court. I just want to miss the tennis sometimes, miss the tours, miss you guys,” he explained to reporters at his press conference.

“That’s why I just want to have long breaks, because it’s impossible to last the whole season playing every tournament.”

See AP’s full tennis coverage here