Tennis Future Watch: Carlos Alcaraz Tennis Cards – Carlos Alcaraz was marked a potential future great when he became the youngest player in the men’s Top 100 in May 2021. Of course, given the dominance of the Federer/Nadal/Djokovic troika over the past two decades, hopes had to be modest. So many other players of the past few generations have struggled to break through. In fact, since Federer kickstarted this era at Wimbledon 20 years ago, the only other players to win two or more majors were Andy Murray (2) and Stan Wawrinka (3) until Alcaraz matched the 2022 US Open with this year’s Wimbledon title. Last year’s US Open, established the exceptional Spaniard as the youngest-ever #1 player in the world. This year the Wimbledon championship and reclamation of the world’s top ranking came directly at the expense of Djokovic. The match will likely come to be seen as a passing of the torch from the Old Guard.
Alcaraz began learning the sport at an early age. His father served as tennis academy director at the Real Sociedad Club de Campo de Murcia in Spain. He graduated from there to Juan Carlos Ferrero’s Equelite JC Ferrero Sport Academy. Debuting at an ATP event in 2020, Alcaraz spent 2021 taking baby steps in majors. He advanced to the second round at the Australian Open, the third round of the French Open and the second round at Wimbledon. These foreshadowed his monstrous breakthrough in New York a year later where he defeated the third-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas to reach the fourth round. Alcaraz subsequently became the youngest quarterfinalist on the men’s side in the Open era before succumbing to a leg injury.
The 2022 Rio Open would serve as Alcaraz’s breakthrough pro victory. He followed that up with his first Masters 1000 title at the Miami Open. But it was at the Madrid Open that really established Alcaraz as the Next Big Thing. He was the first player ever to defeat Djokovic and Nadal back-to-back on clay. Alcaraz capped off the accomplishment by defeating the other player in the top three at the time, Alexander Zverev, in the finals. Later in the summer, Alcaraz became the youngest player in the top five of the world rankings since his countryman Nadal in 2005. He finished off his run at the US Open with three consecutive five-set victories before defeating fellow phenom Casper Ruud for his first major.
Injuries in late 2022 and early 2023 slowed his roll a bit before he surpassed the previous year’s record. Alcaraz had big wins at the Argentina Open, Indian Wells (becoming the second-fastest player to 100 pro wins behind only John McEnroe), Barcelona, Madrid and the Queen’s Club Championships before his epic dethroning of the four-time defending champion Djokovic at Wimbledon. The list of players who have spent more than 100 consecutive weeks as the world’s top ranked player is quite elite: Federer (237), Jimmy Connors (160), Ivan Lendl (157), Djokovic (122) and Pete Sampras (102). With the track record established at age 20, who would possibly bet against Alcaraz joining this club and even surpassing Djokovic’s overall record of 389 weeks on top?
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