CARLOS ALCARAZ Is he starting a new era?

When a nineteen-year-old Spaniard won the U.S. Open in 2022, he created a furore in the tennis world; the youngest to do so since Pete Sampras in 1990. However, till date it remains the only Grand Slam title that he has ever won, but with superlative performances in other tennis tournaments around the world, Carlos Alcaraz Garfia found the favour of both, the Association of Tennis Professionals as well as the World Tennis Association, as the World No. 1 in singles.

- GP CAPT ACHCHYUT KUMAR

With eleven ATP Tour-level singles titles and four Masters 1000 titles against his name, Carlos has created several records as the youngest player to achieve those distinctions. In fact, the year 2022 was a glorious year for this young man. Still a month short of entering the last of his teens, he won the Miami Open and then the Madrid Open, a month later. At the age of 19 years, 4 months and 6 days, he became the youngest player to be rated No. 1 in the ATP rankings, and maintained that ranking till the end of the year to become the youngest player to retain the No. 1 till the year end.

In the Grand Slam events, Carlos Alcaraz's performance has not been all that impressive except for that one U.S. Open title. Last year, he reached the third round of the Australian Open, the quarter-finals of the French Open and was eliminated in the fourth round at the Wimbledon. This year, he did not play at the Australian Open but did impress in reaching the semi-finals at Roland Gaross.

Despite Novak Djokovic's recent performances, the All England Club decided to go ahead with Carlos as the top seed at Wimbledon because of his No. 1 ranking and Carlos has also reasons to justify his seeding as he won this year's Queens Club Championship, his first title on grass. At the time of this article going to press, Carlos seems to be justifying his seeding with straight set victories in the first two rounds - 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 against J.