‘It’s impossible’: Carlos Alcaraz reveals he will take ‘long breaks’ from tennis.

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain returns the ball to Jaime Fario of Portugal during the second round of the US Open tennis championships, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Sydney Schaefer) Carlos Alcaraz says he plans to take regular breaks from tennis in the future, even if it means missing some tournaments. The Spaniard believes the busy ATP calendar is becoming too demanding and could leave players exhausted or injured.The defending US Open champion made the comments after bouncing back from a first-set loss to beat Portugal’s Jaime Faria 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 to reach the third round.Alcaraz recently returned after missing four months with a wrist injury. While he didn’t want such a long break, now he feels shorter, scheduled breaks could help him stay fresh.“I took more than I wanted to be honest, but seeing how tight the calendar is, of course I don’t want to have this break because of injury. But in the future I will take some breaks, some long breaks. Maybe not four months, but one month, two months, I will miss some tournaments because it is impossible to play them all,” said Alcaraz.

Alcaraz is worried about the workload of the players

The 22-year-old feels that players are pushed to compete in too many big events, leaving little time for recovery.“I think they add more important tournaments. They kind of make us play,” Alcaraz said. “You can decide your calendar, but there are some Masters 1000s, some Grand Slams and we were out for 40 weeks if we had to play every mandatory tournament that the ATP requires us to do,” he added.“So it’s impossible and we’re seeing a lot of players getting injured, a lot of players getting tired. If they don’t do anything about it, we’re going to see even more in the future,” he warned.On court, Alcaraz made an impressive recovery after dropping the opening set. He won eight straight games and broke Faria five times in a row to take control.The Spaniard hit 43 winning points and converted seven of 12 break points to complete the comeback. The win extended his Grand Slam winning streak to 16 matches and improved his US Open record to 26-3.Alcaraz, a two-time US Open champion, is now 9-0 at majors in 2026. Next, he will face the Chinese Wu Yibing.