Muscle edema in forearm forces Carlos Alcaraz to withdraw from Rome Masters

Injury is forcing Carlos Alcaraz out of another ATP Masters 1000 event this clay-court season. The Spaniard announced Friday that he won't play in next week's Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome due to a musicle edema in his forearm, a consequence of the injury that had previously caused him to withdraw from the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters at the start of April.

Alcaraz had previously expressed feeling some discomfort in his arm in a three-set loss to Andrey Rublev in the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open on Wednesday, where he was the two-time defending champion. Rublev's 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win snapped Alcaraz's 14-match winning streak at his home tournament, and afterwards, the Spaniard told reporters that he was optimistic about playing in the Italian capital. A three-hour, fourth-round win against Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff the previous day might've impacted how he was feeling physically, he said.

"I'm going to work these days to be close to 100% or in a good way to play Rome, but I'm gonna decide these days," he said. "But I think I'll be OK to play Rome."

But on Friday, Alcaraz reversed course, saying that recent test results caused him to reevaluate.

"I felt some pain after playing in Madrid, some discomfort in my arm," Alcaraz wrote on social media Friday. "Today I did some tests and I have a muscle edema in my pronator teres [the anterior forearm muscle], a consequence of my recent injury. Unfortunately I will not be able to play in Rome. I need to rest so I can recover and play 100% pain free. I am very sorry, I will see you next year."

Alcaraz made the third round in his Rome debut last year, but was one of a trio of top players to exit Madrid under an injury cloud. World No. 2 Jannik Sinner withdrew from his quarterfinal match due to a hip injury, which had plagued him for at least two prior matches at the tournament, and world No. 4 Daniil Medvedev, the defending champion in Rome, retired after losing the first set of his own quarterfinal match Thursday.

"Right now, definitely yes, but I need to see the images, speak to my team," Medvedev told reporters afterwards, when asked if his participation in Rome was at risk. "... [I] just need to see what it is, because right now I basically don't know if it's very serious, just serious, or not serious."

The year's second Grand Slam at Roland Garros, where Alcaraz made the semifinals last year, begins on May 26.