THE BIG T DROP SHOT EDITION - Alcaraz Alert: Former World #1 To Miss Rome and Roland Garros
4/24/202621 min
Tennis just got a major shake-up.In today’s Big T-Drop Shot, episode, we break down the shocking injury news surrounding Carlos Alcaraz, as the young superstar is set to miss both Rome and Roland Garros. What does this mean for the clay season—and the race for Grand Slam glory?Hosts Brad Gilbert and Mark Petchey dive deep into the ripple effects across the tennis world. With Alcaraz sidelined, the door swings wide open… Will Jannik Sinner continue his dominant run and stack more titles? Or can Novak Djokovic summon greatness once again in pursuit of a historic 25th Grand Slam?And don’t sleep on the next wave—could rising stars like João Fonseca, Arthur Fils, or Martín Landaluce seize their moment under the bright lights? Plus: Is this finally the breakthrough opportunity for Alexander Zverev to capture that elusive first Slam?New Storylines. High Stakes. Big Surprises. It’s all here on THE BIG T Podcast.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMark Petchey· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Welcome to the Drop Shot edition of The Big T, probably one of the episodes that we actually didn't wanna record. You can catch it on Apple, Spotify, and Amazon Music. But of course, the big news, and we had to touch on it today, was Carlos Alcaraz having to pull out of not just Rome, but the defense of his title of Roland-Garros because of the wrist injury that he sustained in Barcelona. We saw him in Madrid, uh, in a cast going to the Laureus Sports Award. We were concerned, and unfortunately those concerns, uh, were validated today by Carlos when he said he couldn't play. Uh, Brad Gilbert, um, firstly, where are you? And secondly, what are your thoughts about this news?
Brad Gilbert· Host0:44
Um, afternoon, Mark. I'm in Marin County at my tennis shop on this somber afternoon. Evening for you in Madrid. But when I heard the, uh, the news this morning, Mark, honestly, it felt like a gut punch. And, you know, a lot of times with players that we've seen that have had wrist issues, from Dominic Thiem or Delpo, they've been struggling for a few weeks or, or months playing through it. You see tape and they're trying to do everything, or battling tendonitis. It looked like with Carlos, it was this one match, it was this one episode that happened. W- uh, go way back to 1993 with Andre Agassi. When he was returning a serve,