The Novak Djokovic-Carlos Alcaraz-Jannik Sinner carousel: 2024 clay season fails to see trio play at the same tournament in lead-up to French Open
Both Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have withdrawn from the ensuing Italian Open that gets underway on May 10. World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, however, will play in the tournament.
This means that for the third consecutive tournament in the European clay swing, the top three players in the world (Djokovic, Alcaraz and Sinner) will not appear together.
Djokovic is choosy at this stage of his career
Djokovic will be 37 this month and hence, quite understandably, he picks and chooses the tournaments he would play in. He did not participate at Madrid Open, which both Alcaraz and Sinner were a part of. The Serb himself said that he was preparing his body to compete at the Grand Slams and the Olympics while talking about his withdrawal from the Masters 1000 event in the Spanish capital.
"Unfortunately I will not be playing in the Madrid Open this year, hopefully next year – I’m still young, I have time. But I’m preparing my body to be ready particularly for Roland Garros, Wimbledon, Olympic Games and US Open. That’s the most important block of the year for me," the 37-year-old said as quoted by the Guardian.
The Serb's ultimate target will be winning the French Open to get his 25th Grand Slam title. Since the conditions in Rome will be pretty similar to the ones in Paris, Djokovic would want to play himself into form by going deep into the Italian Open or, preferably, by winning it for the seventh time.
Alcaraz's injury-problems seem concerning at the moment
For a 21-year-old, Alcaraz gets injured too often and that could play a damaging role in his career. He will surely not like to have as many injury-issues Rafael Nadal, his fellow Spaniard, had in his career. He will miss the Italian Open owing to an injury and this is not the first time such a thing has happened in his career.
The young Spaniard won the Indian Wells Open title last March, but his form since then has not been very encouraging. He has found himself repeatedly in trouble against big-hitters and he has to address that. Not having a particularly powerful serve is also a persistent issue for him.
Some much-needed rest will help Sinner
Sinner has had a fantastic last few months that saw him win the Australian Open and Miami Open. However, he had to give a walkover to Felix Auger-Aliassime owing to a hip-injury. The 22-year-old Italian has been playing continuously for the last six months or so and hence, the rest will help him recover for the French Open.
Tennis-lovers have been denied to some extent
The fact that the top three players have not appeared together in the three Masters 1000 tournaments on clay this year has surely been some sort of disappointment for tennis-lovers in general. However, one has to keep in mind the rigorous schedule in this regard.
Moreover, since one of those players is in the twilight of his career, it is quite understandable that such things will keep happening. One will have to curtail one's expectations accordingly.