By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Photo credit: Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters Facebook
The tennis court is a comeback crossroads this week.
Reigning US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz is in Spain training with Holger Rune as both young stars, rehabbing injuries, are putting their bodies to the test before making final decisions on playing the US Open.
The US Open main draw starts on Sunday, August 30th.
Alcaraz has been training with a compression wrap around his right forearm, Spanish news agency MARCA reports.
Sky Sport and Rune shared these images of the pair training together yesterday.
Alcaraz, who has not played since injuring his right wrist defeating Otto Virtanen in his Barcelona Open opener in April, pulled out of Cincinnati last week. Alcaraz was defending Cincinnati champion, defeating Jannik Sinner, who retired from their 2025 Cincinnati Open final.
Overall, Alcaraz has posted a 22-3 record in 2026, winning titles at the Australian Open and in Doha.
While there were rumors Alcaraz, who partnered Emma Raducanu in the 2025 US Mixed Doubles tournament, could join forces with Serena Williams in a Flushing Meadows Mixed Doubles pairing, his status for New York remains undecided.
Rune is continuing his recovery from a ruptured Achilles tendon he suffered last October and a knee injury he sustained earlier this year.
Former Paris Masters champion Rune had been rehabbing at Aspetar Hospital in Qatar and more recently has posted images on social media of his training at the Mouratoglou Academy.
Aneke Rune, Holger’s mother and manager told Nicholas Albek of SpilXperten that Holger’s speed and stamina on court are improving..
“Yes, a lot is happening on the physical side at the moment,” Aneke Rune told Nicholas Albek. “We had the specialist from Doha down 10 days ago to give a lot of tips to the explosive work – and it really moves.
“He’s getting faster and faster, so basically the main focus now is to get his tennis stamina up, which is why you can see him with all the measuring equipment he’s training with.”
In a US Open final attended by President Donald Trump, Alcaraz defeated Sinner 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 last September. The 22-year-old Spaniard claimed his sixth career Grand Slam championship, avenged his four-set defeat to Sinner in the Wimbledon final and collected a Grand Slam record $5 Million champion’s check in Flushing Meadows last summer.
“When you achieve the goals you set up yourself at the beginning of the year, it feels amazing,” Alcaraz said. “Since I got the chance to recover the No. 1, it was one of the first goals that I had during the seasons, just to try to recover the No. 1 as soon as possible or end the year as the No. 1.
“For me, achieve that once again, it is, as I said, it is a dream. Doing in the same day as getting another Grand Slam feels even better. It’s everything I’m working for, and I’m really happy to be able to live these experiences.”
Has everyone forgotten that the “great Serena threatened a linesperson and berated a chair umpire for about 10 minutes before he made her forfeit the match? She is not the goat because of her attitude on the court thinking she was so special. The actual goat is Steffi Graff who if she had played longer would have won a lot more grand slams than 22.
You’re talking about something from the past, move forward with your mentality. The game today is far superior to the game played 3 to 4 decades ago. Serena Williams is the female GOAT!