At age 19, Carlos Alcaraz won the US Open to become the top ranked player, a position he held for over 4months.
Winning the US Open at that age made him the youngest player to ever become number 1 in the world. Geoff Dyer, a tennis writer, who wrote The Last Days of Roger Federer, saw him play at BNP Paribas last year, and found him to be not only relentless but “the most complete young player I had seen for ages”.
Over the course of his US Open triumph, Alcaraz was on court for a record 23 hours and 39 minutes, encompassing three seemingly endless five-set matches, some of which ran far into the night. With Federer’s departure, Rafael Nadal fading off with consecutive injury spells, and the dominance of Djokovic, tennis is entering a new era.
It’s more physical, with lengthy matches, played all over the world day and night; and there are more tournaments, more social media demands; easier ways for the fans and lovers of tennis to enter the players’ own and distract them.
Many believe that the likes of Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, and a few others would carry on the legacy of the Big-3 based on their abilities since turning pro.
Can He Do Better Than The Big-3?
Talks about Carlos Alcaraz going as far as the Big-3 has surfaced early on in is career, due to his fantastic performances. However, predictions like that are often easy to make especially when a new young player with talent arrives. It will take consistency, resilience, staying out of long spell/career ending injuries.
Alcaraz as a child admired and prefer Roger Federer over his countryman Rafa Nadal. A video shot when he was 12 shows him squinting up into the camera and declaring that Federer is his idol
“Rafa is someone I’ve always watched, I admire him a lot. But Federer, the class he had, the way he got people to see tennis, that was beautiful. Watching Federer is like looking at a work of art. It’s elegance, he did everything magnificently. I became enchanted by him.” “What Rafa, Roger, and Djokovic have done is almost impossible,” not merely winning but continuing to want to win. “I think when you’ve won your first Grand Slam you realize how complicated that is.”
So What Will Carlos Alcaraz Do?
“I’m going to keep wanting to make my dream come true,” he said, “even though I already have.”
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