Carlos Alcaraz: His rise to the top, in figures

1

Aged 19 years 4 months and 7 days, Carlos Alcaraz became the youngest ever world number one in the history of the men’s game last Monday, obliterating Lleyton Hewitt’s record (age 20 years 8 months and 26 days). He also became the youngest male player to win the US Open since Pete Sampras (19 years and 28 days) in 1990 and the youngest male player to win a Grand Slam since Rafael Nadal (19 years and 2 days) at Roland-Garros in 2005.

28

The man from Murcia took over from Daniil Medvedev at the top of the rankings, becoming the 28th player in history to sit in the World No.1 spot.

4

“Carlitos” is the fourth Spanish player ever to take the throne, after Juan Carlos Ferrero, Carlos Moya and Rafael Nadal.

188

At the end of September 2020, the young prodigy was in the World No.189 spot, meaning he climbed 188 places in just two years! Ranked No.32 in January 2022, he entered the Top 20 in February (the youngest male player to do so since 1993), the Top 10 in April (youngest since 2005) and the Top 5 in July (youngest since 2005). His path was already marked out.

51

…the number of wins he has notched up this season. He is the player who has totalled the most wins this season, five more than Stefanos Tsitsipas (46).

5

The Spaniard has already won five titles this year (Rio de Janeiro, Miami, Barcelona, Madrid and the US Open). He was the youngest ever winner of the tournaments in Miami and Madrid. In the Spanish capital, he also became the youngest player to beat Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, and the only player to have done so in the same clay-court tournament.

8

It only took the Murcian eight appearances in a Grand Slam tournament to lift the trophy, the same number as Pete Sampras. Only eight players have done better in the Open era: Edmondson, Wilander and Kuerten (3), Becker (4), Chang (5), Borg and Nadal (6), McEnroe (7).

23 hours 39 minutes

The time Carlos Alcaraz spent on court in seven matches during this year’s US Open, including 13 hours 28 minutes for his Round of 16 match, quarterfinal and semifinal put together.

5 hours 15 minutes

His quarter-final ended at 2.50am (local time, the all-time tournament record) against Jannik Sinner is the second-longest match in the history of the US Open (behind the 5 hours 26 minutes played by Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang in 1992). During this epic duel, “Carlitos” saved one match point. It was only the 15th time since the start of the Open era that a male player has won a Grand Slam title after saving a match point during the tournament fortnight.

177

Beyond his sheer power, technical strokes and incredible physical fitness, the victory of Juan Carlos Ferrero’s protégé in the 2022 tournament can be explained by his stats. He recorded the highest number of first serve return points won (177), second serve return points won (205) and the highest number of break points converted (48). He was also the player who attempted the most drop shots (67).