Carlos Alcaraz will be back in competition at the Cincinnati Masters 1000, which runs from August 13 to 23, 2026. That is the short answer to the question the whole tour has been asking for three months. Sidelined since mid-April by a right wrist injury, the Spaniard has picked Ohio to restart his season, one week before the start of the US Open, where he is the defending champion.
An injury that derailed an entire season
The saga began in mid-April in Barcelona, where Carlos Alcaraz had to pull out of the tournament. The diagnosis reported by the specialist press pointed to tenosynovitis in the right wrist, an inflammation of the tendon sheath that is particularly punishing for a right-hander whose forehand relies on exceptional wrist acceleration.
Hopes of a quick return faded fast. On April 21, the Spaniard withdrew from the Madrid Masters 1000, his home tournament, while still sounding confident about what came next. Three days later the verdict fell: the tests were not good, and Alcaraz announced he was ending his entire clay season, Rome and Roland Garros included. We will come out of it stronger, he promised at the time on the ATP's official website.
On May 19 came another blow: withdrawals from Queen's Club and Wimbledon, two pillars of his grass season. Then, in mid-July, the announcement that he would skip the Canadian Open, played in Montreal from August 2 to 13, confirmed the comeback would not happen before mid-August. We covered that latest chapter in our article on his Canadian Open withdrawal.
Why Cincinnati
The choice of Cincinnati is no accident. Alcaraz is the defending champion there: in 2025 he lifted his first trophy in Ohio after Jannik Sinner, clearly diminished that day, retired in the final. He will therefore be defending 1000 points, hardly a footnote in his race for the top of the rankings.
The calendar matters too. The tournament runs from August 13 to 23, right before the US Open. For a player who has not competed in four months, it is the last chance to find match rhythm on American hard courts before New York. Returning in Montreal, a week earlier, would have moved the deadline up: his team preferred to extend the preparation.
What the absence has cost him
The accounting is heavy. World No. 2 when he got injured, Alcaraz has slipped to third. During his recovery, Jannik Sinner retained his Wimbledon title by beating Alexander Zverev in the final, and it is precisely the German, crowned at Roland Garros in the spring, who took advantage of the Spaniard's absence to settle into second place.
The tour has not waited for him. The American swing opens without him in Montreal, and the outdoor hard-court hierarchy is being redrawn every week. That is the real stake of his return: nobody knows what actual level he will bring after such a long break, and he himself will have to gauge his wrist match after match.
A schedule built for the US Open
The underlying goal is hardly in doubt: arriving sharp at Flushing Meadows, where Alcaraz will put his 2025 title on the line. The Cincinnati and US Open double packs an enormous share of his season into three weeks, with two titles to defend back to back.
Caution still applies. Poorly healed tenosynovitis can flare up at the slightest excess, and four months without competition leave marks on the legs and in the mind. The early rounds in Cincinnati will show whether the wrist can handle the pace of a Masters 1000, and whether the explosive game that made Alcaraz a seven-time Grand Slam champion has survived this blank spring intact.
One thing is certain: since his last match in April, men's tennis has been running without one of its two engines. His comeback story starts on August 13, and you can follow his news, ranking and upcoming matches on his player page.
