Carlos Alcaraz waited more than four months to feel this again.
The roar inside Arthur Ashe Stadium. The tension that comes with an official match. The uncertainty of not knowing exactly what his body would give him when the points finally mattered.
By the end of his U.S. Open opener Monday, Alcaraz had something even more important than a straight-sets victory: evidence that his right wrist could withstand competition again.
The defending champion defeated Roman Safiullin 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in his first official singles match since April 14, beginning his title defense with a performance that looked considerably more settled than the doubts Alcaraz admitted were running through his mind before it.
“It’s been a really tough, like, five months for me,” Alcaraz told ESPN’s Mary Joe Fernandez afterward. “Being able to step in here, being able to compete again … I couldn’t decide to come back in a better tournament.”
Carlos Alcaraz Admits He Had Doubts About His Wrist
Alcaraz’s last ATP singles match came in Barcelona, where he defeated Otto Virtanen before withdrawing because of the wrist injury. The layoff became the longest of his career.
That made Monday about considerably more than Safiullin.
Alcaraz had tested the wrist during long, intense practices before the tournament, but no training session could fully simulate the physical strain of best-of-five Grand Slam tennis. He acknowledged before the U.S. Open that returning directly at a major was hardly ideal preparation.
Afterward, he admitted wondering whether his body would hold up if the match stretched deep into the afternoon.
“I’m not gonna lie,” Alcaraz told Fernandez. “I’ve been thinking about, ‘Am I gonna last a match? … Am I gonna last playing four sets, five sets?’ I don’t know.”
His solution was quintessential Alcaraz: stop calculating and start playing.
He said he tried to push the doubts aside, focus on his responsibilities between the lines and “let it go.”
The result was three controlled sets and no visible physical crisis.
Alcaraz Most Proud of Mental Test
There was some understandable rust.
Alcaraz acknowledged that his tennis will have to improve as the tournament progresses, saying he needs more matches “in the battle” before completely rediscovering the rhythm that normally comes from weeks of competition.
But the seven-time Grand Slam champion came away more encouraged by what happened between his ears.
“The most I’m proud of, I must say that mentally I was able to deal with everything — with the nerves, with the doubts in my head — and just keep it going,” Alcaraz said.
That may matter as much as his forehand over the next two weeks.
Alcaraz is attempting something no U.S. Open men’s champion has accomplished since the tournament moved permanently to hard courts in 1978: win the title without playing a North American hard-court event beforehand. Every champion over that 48-year span arrived with at least one summer tuneup.
New York, however, has always been different for Alcaraz.
He won his first Grand Slam here at 19 in 2022 and became world No. 1 for the first time. He returned to the summit after winning the title again in 2025.
“I missed the crowd, the energy,” Alcaraz said. “I missed competition. I missed everything.”
For one afternoon in Ashe, almost nothing looked missing.
Carlos Alcaraz Makes Candid Admission After US Open Comeback Win