US Open - Sinner OUT, Alcaraz IN!

[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to the Tennis Podcast, an emergency, unplanned Tennis Podcast following two bombshell news drops from the tennis universe in the last 24 hours, or more specifically from the Sinner-Alcaraz universe.

We can narrow it down to that.

The tennis lords giveth, and they taketh away, starting with the Instagram and other social media platforms posts, but it was Instagram where I saw it, the incredible, uh, Carlos Alcaraz in a basketball top graphic with the announcement via a joint post, uh, with renowned football journalist and influencer Fabrizio Romano.

Not sure how we deal with that element of things.

But anyway, uh, the news that he will be playing the US Open.

He also posted a very comical video saying, "Here we go," uh, Romano's catchphrase.

Didn't bother to use one of those, uh, influencer microphones or anything like that.

Just, just raw dogged it.

Uh, it was very, very amusing.

Uh, and he did an emoji of the American flag and a plane.

Uh, this will of course be his first Grand Slam the, since the Australian Open, and it- it'll be his first professional tennis since retiring with a wrist injury at the Barcelona Open on April the 14th.

So we see that announcement yesterday.

We're all guns blazing.

We could not possibly be more pumped for the US Open, and then earlier today, we get the announcement from Jannik Sinner that he is withdrawing from the US Open.

He said, "Even though I've been working hard with my team and my medical staff, we have now had to make the difficult decision that I will not be able to compete at the US Open this year.

We've been back on court in Monte Carlo over the last couple of days, and I've realized that I still need more time to recover from my right knee issue.

I'm obviously very sad and disappointed, as New York has a special place in my heart." And, uh, Sinner has not played since winning Wimbledon on July the 12th.