► Number one
By winning his first Grand Slam title in New York on September 11, the Spaniard took the lead in the ATP rankings the next day. He becomes, at 19, the youngest player to reach the world number one spot since August 1973 and the creation of the hierarchy.
He is now ahead of Australian Lleyton Hewitt (20 years and 9 months in 2001), Russian Marat Safin (20 years and 10 months in 2000) and American John McEnroe (21 years and 1 month in 1980) in precocity records. ).
► 14 ans
The youngest leader in world tennis, Carlos Alcaraz is not a newcomer to the circuit. The Iberian made his professional debut at just 14 years old, at the Futures tournament (3rd division, ATP antechamber) in Murcia. He will win two matches there, close to his native town, El Palmar.
► 7.39 million dollars
After his victory at the US Open – and the check for $ 2.6 million promised to the winner – Carlos Alcaraz also takes the lead in annual tournament earnings. The Spaniard now has more than 7.39 million dollars (7.3 million euros) in 2022 in “prize money” – not counting the income from his sponsorship contracts. He precedes his compatriot Rafael Nadal (6.69 million) and Casper Ruud (4.64 million), unfortunate finalist in New York.
► « Big Four »
Since February 2004, Carlos Alcaraz is only the second player to reach the first place in the world without being from the “Big Four” (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray). Before him, Russian Daniil Medvedev – number one for sixteen weeks in 2022 – was the first to interfere among the four legends, who together have 933 weeks at the top of the rankings and 66 Grand Slam titles.
Last May, during the “Madrid Masters 1000”, the Spaniard was the first player to beat Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in the same tournament on clay. The Spaniard and the Serb having won Roland-Garros 14 and 2 times respectively, the most prestigious competition on the ocher surface.
► Too old
Subscriber to precocity records, Carlos Alcaraz is already too old to erase his predecessors from the shelves in the four Grand Slam tournaments, the pinnacle of tennis. At 19 years and 4 months, the Murcian will never be able to do better than Mats Wilander (winner of the Australian Open in 1983 at 19 years and 111 days), Pete Sampras (US Open 1990 at 19 years and 28 days), Boris Becker (Wimbledon 1985 at 17 years and 228 days) and Michael Chang (Roland-Garros 1989 at 17 years and 110 days).
