After coasting through his US Open opener against Roman Safiullin, Carlos Alcaraz started the same way against Jaime Faria. Moving well and hitting the ball fluently, he earned a break point at 3-2 in the first set. He missed a regulation forehand and squandered it.

The next game, serving to save a break point, he netted another forehand and was broken.

Alcaraz rarely misses shots like that. They’re what make him a destructive force on tour. He erred this time not because of his recent wrist injury, but because he was hurrying to close out the points.

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“I was in a rush. I didn’t take time. I wasn’t patient,” Alcaraz later told former world No. 4 James Blake in his on-court interview. “That cost me the break.”

Faria consolidated with two strong service games to take the first set 6-4. Alcaraz, who dropped just one set across his entire 2025 Flushing Meadows title run, had already dropped one at the start of his second match this year.

Why was he in such a rush? Plain impatience, or a desire to make up for more than four months of inactivity? It could well be the latter, given how packed the calendar has become. Of the nine Masters 1000 events, seven have swelled from the traditional one week to 12 days. A lengthy injury layoff has pushed Alcaraz, a seven-time Grand Slam champion, down to No. 3 in the rankings, and he must be eager to climb back.

“Seeing how tight is the calendar, I don’t want to have this lengthy break because of an injury,” he said at the post-match press conference. “But in the future, I’m going to take some long breaks. Maybe not four months, but one, two months, missing some tournaments, because it’s impossible to play them all.”

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The ATP has said in the past that players can pick and choose their tournaments, but Alcaraz pointed out that the reality is different. “They are adding more important tournaments. In a way they are making us play,” he said. “You can skip one or two and decide your calendar, but there are some Masters 1000s, some Grand Slams, and we are out playing 40 weeks if we have to play every mandatory tournament that the ATP requires us to play.”

Alcaraz beat Faria 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 in the second round.

The strain is showing, in burnout and a rising injury count. Alcaraz missed the French Open and Wimbledon this year; his rival Jannik Sinner, along with Jack Draper, Holger Rune and João Fonseca, were all forced to withdraw from the season’s last major.

“We are seeing a lot of players getting injured and tired. If they don’t do anything about it, we are going to see it even more in the future,” Alcaraz added.

“Got to feel normal”

On Thursday, though, the two-time US Open champion shook off the first-set setback easily. He realised he needed to be more composed with his shot-making, and never looked back.

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After saving two break points in the first game of the second set, Alcaraz bagelled the 23-year-old Faria and went on to win 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 at Arthur Ashe Stadium. As in the first round against Safiullin, he didn’t shy away from his wrist-heavy topspin groundstrokes; the inside-out forehand was in full flow, as though the injury had never happened.

“I know once I step on the court, I’ve just got to go for it every time. I’ve got to feel normal,” Alcaraz said. “I have to hit like I was hitting before the injury. I’m feeling great. There is no reason to be afraid and not hitting normal.”

Though he’d initially wanted to close the match out in straight sets, Alcaraz came to see the extra work Faria gave him as useful. “At the end, I realised that playing four sets was really good for me, to test everything physically, to test my body, how I feel, and how I’m going to feel tomorrow after this match.”

He next faces China’s world No. 113, Wu Yibing, in the round of 32. Alexander Bublik, Ben Shelton, Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev could await him in the rounds after that.

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Alcaraz is on a 16-match winning streak at majors, dating back to last August in New York. Since 2025, he has lost only two of his 33 Grand Slam matches, one each to Sinner and Novak Djokovic. With both already out of his way in this campaign, it may take something unusual to stop his title defence.