Carlos Alcaraz has admitted he was “scared” and “worried” by the injury he sustained in his opening round victory at the 2025 Japan Open and declared it will “not be easy” to recover for his next match.
The world No 1 prevailed 6-4, 6-2 against 41st-ranked Sebastian Baez on his debut at the ATP 500 tournament in Tokyo despite the concerning incident early in the contest.
On the first point of the fifth game of the match — with the score tied at 2-2 — Alcaraz pulled up and fell to the court in pain as he went to chase down a Baez drop shot.
The six-time major winner was in clear discomfort and remained sat on the court as he received treatment from the physio. The issue appeared to be with either his left ankle or Achilles.
Alcaraz looked slightly hesitant when moving to his left and went to the slice backhand more often than he usually would. Despite the concerns, Alcaraz did not face a break point after the injury and stormed through the second set.
Here is everything Alcaraz said in his post-match on-court interview with Tennis TV.
Q: I think you gave everyone a little bit of a scare there when you fell down in the first set. Can you tell us what happened?
Alcaraz: “Yeah, I mean I was scared too, I’m not gonna lie. When I plant the ankle, I was worried, to be honest, because I didn’t feel good at the beginning. So I’m just happy that I was able to play after that, playing such a good tennis, finish the match quite decent, quite good.
Is Carlos Alcaraz risking injury by taking on a ‘crazy’ schedule?
“So let’s see, it’s not gonna be easy the next day, day and a half for me. So I will try to recover, to do whatever it takes to be ready for the next round, to try to play and have a good level enough to compete in the next round. But it was a bad… it was unlucky, I’d say. So let’s see.”
Q: Were you thinking at one point that you might pull out of the match?
Alcaraz: “Yeah. Yeah, when I did it, I didn’t feel good at all. I couldn’t do anything at all, the first five minutes when I did it. So I was worried, as I said, because, yeah, I didn’t feel good or I didn’t have the confidence to continue the match.
“But you know, the physio came, he did some tests which was really good that I didn’t feel nothing at all, which for me was great. I could walk to the bench and for me, that gave a lot of confidence to myself that I could continue, that I could play. But you know, I thought about that I couldn’t continue.
Q: The other day, you went to the Samurai museum and I just wondered if you had a warrior mentality?
Alcaraz: “(Laughs) Well, I’m trying to have a warrior mentality in every match, in every aspect of everything, but that’s what I thought today: ‘Okay, try everything, try your best, do whatever you can do it in the match just to play a good tennis.’
“You know, for the fans as well, I could have felt a little bit guilty if I couldn’t continue or play some tennis for the fans, so I just tried to have a good mindset and just give everything that I have.
