Carlos Alcaraz has been warned against making his injury comeback at the 2026 US Open, with a former top-five ATP player making a forceful case for caution.

Alcaraz remains on the entry list for the event, which begins on Sunday 30 August, but his place in the draw is far from certain. The Spaniard has not competed for more than four months after suffering a right wrist injury in a first-round win at the ATP 500 event in Barcelona in April.

With no tournaments scheduled before the US Open, concerns have grown that returning immediately in best-of-five-set matches could be too ambitious after such a long layoff. That debate is sharpened by the fact that Alcaraz is the defending champion in New York, having beaten Jannik Sinner in last year’s final to claim his second title at the major.

Jose Luis Clerc, the retired Argentine player who now works as a commentator and analyst, has been especially direct in his advice. Speaking on ESPN Tenis last week, he urged Alcaraz to stay away from the tournament and wait for a return in Asia.

“Don’t participate in the US Open,” Clerc said in a message directed to Alcaraz while speaking on ESPN Tenis.

Clerc then repeated that message with even more urgency when he appeared on ESPN Tenis again.

“Don’t play, Carlitos! Don’t play! Start in Asia like I told you,” Clerc declared.

“Don’t make me mad! Did you hear me?”

The comments underline the uncertainty around Alcaraz’s plans as the final decision approaches. For now, he is still listed for the US Open, but the question remains whether he will risk an immediate return or follow the advice to postpone his comeback.

Aryna Sabalenka’s difficult stretch continued at the Cincinnati Open, where the world No. 1 fell in the fourth round to unseeded Sara Bejlek. Leading coach Rick Macci said he believes “Sabalenka is competing against herself”.

Sabalenka opened the 2026 campaign in strong fashion, defending her Brisbane International title before reaching the Australian Open final, where she finished runner-up to Elena Rybakina. She then built a major cushion over her rivals in March by winning both Indian Wells and Miami to complete the Sunshine Double. Since then, however, her results have fallen away. Diana Shnaider beat her in the Roland Garros quarter-finals, and Naomi Osaka sent her out in the fourth round at Wimbledon.

That uneven run has continued on the North American hard courts. Sabalenka was previously defeated by Ekaterina Alexandrova in the round of 16, and her Cincinnati exit added another setback. Against Bejlek, the opening set was closely fought. Sabalenka broke in the first game, but the 20-year-old recovered and took the tie-break. In the second set, Bejlek broke immediately, Sabalenka responded by winning four straight games and moving 4-1 ahead, yet she did not claim another game as Bejlek closed out a 7-6 (9-7), 6-4 victory.

Sabalenka now holds a 40-8 record for the season, but Macci thinks confidence is becoming a concern. “Sabalenka is on a slippery slope as the Belarus Bomber still has an unreal serve but in tough moments I see a different mindset with her nerve,” he wrote on X.

The loss also leaves the top ranking under threat. Rybakina can move to No. 1 if she reaches the Cincinnati final. Even if she does not capitalise there, the US Open offers another chance, with Sabalenka defending 2,000 points after winning last year’s title while Rybakina is defending only 240. Macci described the upcoming tournament in New York as “wide open”. He added: “Right now Sabalenka is competing against herself. When an athlete does this you can still get a few wins but mentally your confidence spins,” before calling it “the U.S. WIDE OPEN for the WTA as 15 different players could have the final say.”

Nick Kyrgios has spent years speaking bluntly about doping cases in tennis, and those remarks now sit in stark contrast to his own situation.

The Australian was among the loudest critics when Simona Halep, Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek each failed drug tests in separate cases. Halep tested positive for roxadustat at the 2022 US Open, Sinner for clostebol in March 2024, and Swiatek for trimetazidine in August 2024.

After Halep received a four-year ban in September 2023, Kyrgios responded on social media with the line: “I’d imagine if I was taking similar things to be banned for 4 years I’d have about 5 slams.” He also took aim at Maria Sakkari when she described the app used by the World Ant-Doping Agency to confirm players’ whereabouts as “horrible”.

Kyrgios replied in familiar fashion: “Ehhhh not really lol, I run on bananas and coke cola [sic] in 5 set battles,” he wrote on X. “And my record in them speaks for itself. Maybe players should just stop taking shady sh*t look yourself in the mirror at the end of the day and say yep I did it right. Not hard.”

He later accused Swiatek of making excuses and was especially severe on Sinner, writing: “Ridiculous. Whether it was accidental or planned. You get tested twice with a banned (steroid) substance… you should be gone for 2 years. Your performance was enhanced. Massage cream… yeah nice.”

Nearly two years later, Kyrgios has been provisionally suspended for four years after testing positive for benzoylecgonine, a cocaine metabolite, from a sample taken during the Mallorca Championships in June.

Halep, meanwhile, chose not to attack him. Instead, she posted a message on Instagram that did not name him directly: “Never kick someone when they’re down,” she wrote. “Life has a strange way of changing positions. And an even stranger way of revealing the difference between an accident and a choice.”

Kyrgios accepted responsibility in a statement on social media. “I recently failed a drug test in Mallorca after testing positive for cocaine,” he wrote. “I made a huge mistake and I take full responsibility for it.

“I’m sorry to my fans, my family, my sponsors and everyone close to me. Above all, I’m sorry to the kids who follow me. I know the example this sets and I’m deeply disappointed in myself.”