Alcaraz: The New King on Tennis Throne

Duro Ikhazuagbe with agency report 

New men’s tennis Number 1, Carlo Alcaraz, walked the familiar path towed by past teenage male Grand Slam champions in the 1980s and 1990s in reaching the summit of the sport on Sunday night in Flushing Meadows, New York.

The Spanish kid, at just 19-year-old, is the youngest male Grand Slam champion since his compatriot, Nadal, won the French Open in 2005.

Alcaraz defeated Casper Ruud 6-4 2-6 7-6 (7-1) 6-3 at the US Open 2022 final  to win his first Grand Slam title as well as climb to the Number 1 spot of tennis.

The likes of Mats Wilander, Michael Chang and Boris Becker all won their first major title at the age of 17. But what makes Alcaraz’ feat special is the fact that since 1990 when the game became more physical, winning seven best-of-five-set-matches over a two weeks period has become a mountain too high to climb for so many ambitious kids. Only Rafael Nadal and now Alcaraz have proved worthy teenagers strong enough to ‘dine’ with the elders of the game at the biggest stages and come out smelling roses!

It was sweet early hours of Monday (in Lagos) watching Alcaraz dismantling Ruud to replace  Russia’s Daniil Medvedev at the top of  men’s ranking. It was history-making for Alcaraz as the first teenager to climb  to the summit in the 49-year history of the ATP rankings. If he had failed in the final, Ruud, 23, would have become the new world number one but has now lost both of his two major finals in 2022! Ruud was a beaten finalist at the French Open. Nadal rolled over the lad to claim his second major in 2022. The Spaniard had started the year Down Under in Melbourne, Australia defeated Medvedev in the final, 2–6, 6–7, 6–4, 6–4, 7–5.

For many tennis buffs, Alcaraz’ rise to the summit didn’t come as a surprise. Since switching to an academy run by Spain’s former French Open champion and world number one, Juan Carlos Ferrero, in 2018, it was just a matter of time for him to claim his place amongst the immortals of the sport. The only surprise was attaining the feat as a teen!

After hitting a routine forehand in his first championship point, Alcaraz took his second with a service winner out wide and instantly fell flat on his back in celebration in New York.

Alcaraz, who saved two set points in the third which would have put Ruud ahead, ran up to his team in the stands and danced with them in a huddle, before returning to his seat where he was crying at the same time smiling.

“This is something which I dreamt of since I was a kid, being number one in the world and a champion of a Grand Slam,” said Alcaraz, who saved a match point against Jannik Sinner in the last eight to reach his first major semi-final.

“It is something I have worked very hard for. It is really, really special,” he was quoted by BBC Sport.

The young Alcaraz, born  in Murcia, was always likely to play tennis – as his father, Carlos senior, was academy director at a club in the city.

He was just 16 when he made his ATP main draw debut in February 2020, at the Rio Open. He defeated tour veteran Albert Ramos Vinolas in round one: the tennis world took note.

In the two and a half years between that win in Rio and his Grand Slam title triumph in New York, Alcaraz firmly established his reputation.

He won the Next Gen ATP Finals towards the end of 2021, then broke into the world’s top 20 in February, becaming the youngest winner of an ATP 500 event by taking the Rio Open title.

More success followed quickly. There was a first Masters 1,000 semi-final in March – where he was beaten at Indian Wells by Nadal. Then came a first Masters title in April as Alcaraz, then still 18, became the youngest Miami Open men’s champion.

There was more glory, and more history, before the month was out. In winning the Barcelona Open – another ATP 500 event – the teenager became the youngest player to break the world men’s top 10 since Nadal in 2005.

In May, he won the Madrid Open for his second Masters 1,000 crown and his fourth title of the year – again becoming the tournament’s youngest champion.

He lost in the French Open quarter-finals and the last 16 at Wimbledon, but in late July became the second-youngest player in the 21st century to be ranked in the world men’s top five, after Nadal.

Then came the US Open. On his Flushing Meadows debut last year, Alcaraz reached the quarter-finals – the youngest man to do so in the Open era, and at any Slam since Michael Chang at the French Open in 1990.

He entered this year’s tournament as the number three seed – and in becoming champion, he set records as the youngest Grand Slam men’s finalist since Nadal won the 2005 French Open, and the youngest US Open men’s finalist since Pete Sampras won in 1990.

The success has been financially rewarding too: His rapid rise has earned him more than $9million (£7.8million) in prize money.

How Alcaraz Compares to Other Greats

*Federer  *Nadal   *Djokovic  *Murray

At 19 years and four months, Alcaraz is the youngest number one in ATP ranking’s 49-year history. He beats Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt, who was 20 years and nine months when becoming number one in November 2001.

What is striking about this is how fast Alcaraz has risen to the top. He was world number 55 one year ago, having first entered the top 100 in May 2021. In August 2020, he was ranked 310th.

For 18 years, four men shared the world number one position – Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray.

Nadal was the youngest of those to become number one, aged 22 in August 2008. Federer was also 22 when he first topped the charts, Djokovic was 24, while Murray had to wait until he was 29.

Daniil Medvedev rose to the top earlier in 2022, and the 26-year-old will be a tennis force for years. But Alcaraz looks like something else.