Carlos Alcaraz, a rise to rival the Big Three

"He is not a normal guy. Like Novak was not a normal guy. Like Roger was not a normal guy. Like probably me was not a normal guy."

PREMIUM

That's Rafael Nadal talking about Carlos Alcaraz in Madrid earlier this month. It's a unique description of a young player that instantly draws parallels with three giants of modern tennis.     

Alcaraz, with his record-rewriting performances this season and a game good to beat the best but still developing fast, has compelled Nadal - as indeed most others - into referring to him in the same breath as the Big Three. So, let’s make sense of the 19-year-old’s exploits vis-a-vis the young Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.       

A swift start 

Alcaraz’s early consistency stands out. The Spanish teenager (he turned pro in 2018) has already accumulated more than 50 wins on the ATP tour, at a much faster clip than the Big Three. Alcaraz reached the landmark - after winning the Miami Open semi-final last month - in 70 matches, nine fewer than Djokovic. Nadal took 81 matches and Federer 97. According to the ATP’s Win/Loss Index, Alcaraz’s quickest-to-50 mark tops each of the 27 different world No 1 players. The list includes the cream of men’s tennis, from Pete Sampras to John McEnroe to Andre Agassi.

The pace is incredible given Alcaraz won his first match on the ATP Tour only in February 2020. A chunk of those wins has come during his giant-killing and title-sweeping run this year. After a 32-17 win-loss record in 2021, Alcaraz has raced to 28 wins this year - with a smidge of three defeats - and we're only about halfway into the season.           

Title tally: Five (& counting)

Those 28 wins have also handed Alcaraz four titles in 2022, the most by any player thus far this year (Nadal and Andrey Rublev have three each). Alcaraz is now a holder of five ATP trophies, having bagged the first one in an ATP 250 event in Umag last July. His fifth in Madrid came three days after his 19th birthday. Among the Big Three, only Nadal held five titles at a younger age.   

Nadal won his debut ATP crown at the Prokom Open in Sopot, Poland in August 2004 and sprinted to five at the Barcelona Open the following April, a couple of months shy of turning 19. Djokovic was days away from turning 20 when he won his fifth title at the 2007 Estoril Open, a year after his first in Amersfoort. In contrast, Federer, aged 21, took a couple of years to pocket his fifth in Marseille in 2003 after getting on board at the indoor courts of Milan in 2001.     

Couple of 1000s

Two of Alcaraz’s five titles are ATP Masters 1000 events, the highest tournament category on the tour. He became the second youngest ever to bag a couple of Masters crowns after winning in Madrid. The first wasn’t all that younger. Nadal was 18 years and 11 months when he won his second ATP 1000 title at the Italian Open in May 2005. Djokovic was 20 when he backed up his maiden Masters title in Miami by winning in Canada in the same 2007 season, while Federer was 22 by the time he added the 2004 Indian Wells to his first in 2002 Hamburg. 

Although Nadal is the youngest, both his Masters titles came on clay (Monte Carlo and Rome). Alcaraz, on the other hand, has won them on different surfaces, and after beating four of the top five players. He swept past fifth-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas on the hard courts at Miami Open en route to his maiden Masters trophy last month before taking out No 4 Nadal, No 1 Djokovic and No 3 Alexander Zverev back-to-back on the red Madrid dirt. 

This way to the top 10

This time last year, Alcaraz hadn’t even entered the top 100 of the ATP rankings. He is now the world No 6. It needed all of 18 years, 11 months and 20 days for Alcaraz to scribble his name in the top 10. He is the ninth youngest man in it since computerised rankings began in 1973, and the youngest since - any guess - his senior compatriot. 

Nadal was a month younger than Alcaraz when he figured in the world’s top 10 for the first time in April 2005 post his triumph in Barcelona, the same tournament after which Alcaraz entered the elite club as the 2022 Barcelona Open winner. Djokovic was 19 when he first wore the top-10 tag in March 2007 while Federer was out of his teens, at 20.         

Off the mark in Slams

Grand Slam success is what separates the good from the great and the great from the GOAT. Indeed, it is what has defined the Big Three with a collective 61 Slams between them. Alcaraz is yet to win his first, but even the GOAT contenders - we haven’t had the final word on it - took a while to get their first bite of the Slam cake. 

Federer made his Grand Slam debut in 1999 and went through a four-year grind before beginning his count at the 2003 Wimbledon, at 21. Djokovic was 20 when he won the 2008 Australian Open, three years after his maiden Major appearance on the same Melbourne courts. Nadal played his first Roland Garros match 10 days shy of this 19th birthday, celebrating it by beating Federer in the semi-finals. Two days later, he had lifted the 2005 French Open trophy. The baby-faced teen sporting sleeveless tees had announced his ascendancy on the Slam stage, where he first competed in 2003. 

Alcaraz finds himself in a similar position. His maiden Grand Slam outing was at the 2020 French Open that ended with an opening qualifying round defeat. Last year, Alcaraz progressed to the third round in Paris and the quarter-finals in New York. He beat Tsitsipas in the US Open Round of 32. 

So upbeat is the teen about his current form, with soaring self-belief, that he feels “ready” to win a Grand Slam this season. “It’s a goal for me this year to get my first Grand Slam,” Alcaraz said. “Let’s see what happens in Roland Garros.”

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