{"id":261605,"date":"2023-01-07T02:01:52","date_gmt":"2023-01-07T03:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=261605"},"modified":"2023-01-07T07:57:01","modified_gmt":"2023-01-07T07:57:01","slug":"how-alcarazs-withdrawal-blows-open-ao-draw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=261605","title":{"rendered":"How Alcaraz's withdrawal blows open AO draw"},"content":{"rendered":"

W\ufeffith w\ufefforld No.1 Carlos Alcaraz announcing his withdrawal from the Australian Open on Saturday morning<\/a>, several top-ranked players' title hopes have received a massive boost.<\/p>\n

As a result of Alcaraz's removal, nine-time champion Novak Djokovic will \ufeffadvance from the major's fifth seed to fourth.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for Djokovic, the jump into the top-four will ensure he won't face another top-seeded player until at least the semi finals – strengthening his title run.<\/p>\n

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\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Tears of joy' as NFL star's recovery hits milestone<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Novak<\/p>\n

The shift will also help \ufeffRafael Nadal, Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas as Djokovic will not feature in their quarter.<\/p>\n

In the shuffle, defending champion Nadal will \ufeffbecome the Slam's new top seed while world No.4 Stefanos Tsitsipas could score a top-two seeding following the conclusion of the United Cup.<\/p>\n

Tsitsipas is scheduled to play Matteo Berrettini on Saturday as part of Greece's semi final tie with Italy.<\/p>\n

A victory over the Italian would cause Tsitsipas to leapfrog world No. 3 Ruud when the revised ATP rankings are released ahead of the AO draw announcement.<\/p>\n

American Taylor Fritz will also become the eighth seed, growing his chances of progressing to the quarter finals in line with the front runners.<\/p>\n

\"Carlos<\/p>\n

Ensuing the outcome of the AO, Ruud, Tsitsipas and Djokovic all have a chance to replace Alcaraz as the men's world No. 1.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz had been restricted by an abdominal concern since early November but cited a right leg injury as his reason for missing the Australian summer.<\/p>\n

"When I was at my best in preseason, I picked up an injury through a chance, unnatural movement in training. This time it's the semimembranosus muscle in my right leg," he wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n

"I'd worked so hard to get to my best level for Australia but unfortunately I won't be able to play (Kooyong) or the Australian Open."\ufeff<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

W\ufeffith w\ufefforld No.1 Carlos Alcaraz announcing his withdrawal from the Australian Open on Saturday morning, several top-ranked players' title hopes have received a massive boost. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=261605"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":261607,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261605\/revisions\/261607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=261605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=261605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=261605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}