In the last twenty years there had been only four winners in the men’s Wimbledon tournament. One of them, Serbian Novak Djokovic, was beaten in Sunday’s final by 20-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, a player who will still be talked about in the next decade, at least according to what we’ve seen so far.
For Alcaraz it was the first victory at Wimbledon, of which he became the third youngest winner after Boris Becker and Björn Borg, two greats in tennis history. But Wimbledon was not his first Grand Slam tournament (the four most important of the season). At nineteen he had already won the US Open, and on that occasion he too became the youngest number one in the world rankings, a position he has now consolidated with Sunday’s victory.
Alcaraz was born in 2003 in El Palmar, near Murcia, in southeastern Spain, and was considered one of the greatest talents of his generation, if not il older, even before he started winning major tournaments. Since he began competing on the major professional tennis circuit, his rise has been so rapid that from a promising youngster he quickly went on to be one of the best around, ever: between 2020 and 2021 he was still over the hundredth position in the world ranking, then in March 2022 he made his debut in the top ten.
He is coached by former Spanish tennis player Juan Carlos Ferrero, who was himself world number one in the early 2000s, but has more often been compared to compatriot Nadal, the second most successful tennis player in history (the first being Djokovic). Of Nadal in particular he is considered a sort of heir, even if they look alike more than anything else due to their precociousness and some youthful records, because they play quite differently.
Compared to the young Nadal, for example, Alcaraz already has the ability to play at a high level on all surfaces, and therefore to combine physical, technical and mental skills that are rarely seen in players of his age. He won his first Grand Slam at the US Open, on hard courts, then he achieved important victories on clay and now he has won Wimbledon, on grass, despite the fact that in his career he has played very few matches on the more technical surface of tennis than his opponents more experienced. In his early years, however, Nadal dominated only on clay, thanks to an already uncommon physical prowess, and only when he refined his technical skills did he begin to win continuously on other surfaces as well.
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Alcaraz is associated with Nadal, as well as for nationality, also for what appears to be a sort of “relay” between the two. In May, Nadal announced that in all likelihood 2024 will be his last year as a player, given his age (37) and the physical problems in his hip and right leg he has been struggling with for some time. While Spanish tennis is losing the greatest champion, with Alcaraz it seems to be gaining another right away.
And like Nadal had Roger Federer, Alcaraz could have a great rival in Jannik Sinner, who is only two years older than him. Both Sinner and Alcaraz are very aware of the expectations that surround them as possible rivals. They have spoken on several occasions about the possibility of playing many matches as opponents in the next few years and often spend excellent words for each other, saying they respect each other and have a good relationship, with a sportsmanship similar to that which defined the rivalry between Federer and Nadal, and which then continued in the following years with the inclusion of Djokovic.
Alcaraz arrived slightly later at the top of the tennis circuit than Sinner, but with a greater impact. He immediately seemed an even rarer talent than his Italian rival, both from a technical and athletic point of view. Sinner, on the other hand, still has several things to perfect before being able to compete with Alcaraz for the victory of the best tournaments on the circuit, even if so far the balance of their direct matches is equal with three victories each.