One year ago, Carlos Alcaraz emerged from relative obscurity to reach the US Open quarter-finals. People within the game had long heard distant rumblings about a prodigiously gifted young Spaniard whose game was taking shape under Juan Carlos Ferrero, the former world No 1, at his academy in Alicante. Now the only rumblings heard were the thunder brought by Alcaraz’s percussive power and extraordinary all-court dynamism.
Ranked outside the top 50 at the time, Alcaraz was instantly heralded as a future grand slam champion and world No 1. What no one could have imagined was how quickly he would scale those heights.
On Sunday, barely a year after he first announced his talent to the world, Alcaraz defeated Norway’s Casper Ruud 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-3 to clinch the US Open title. On Monday, when the new ranking list is published, he will become, at the age of 19, the youngest No 1 since the rankings were inaugurated in 1973.
“It’s crazy,” said Alcaraz. “I’ve never thought that I was going to achieve something like that at 19 years old. Everything came so fast. For me, it’s unbelievable. It’s something I dreamed [of] since I was a kid, since I started playing tennis.”
It is an astonishing achievement by any standards, one that brackets Alcaraz alongside his compatriot Rafael Nadal, who was the same age when he won the first of his 22 majors at Roland Garros in 2005. Yet barely less remarkable than the precocity of the Spaniard’s unprecedented double is the manner in which he went about carving his place in history.
After the gruelling path Alcaraz had taken to the final, this victory was almost an act of will. Taken the distance in three successive rounds by Marin Cilic, Jannik Sinner and Frances Tiafoe – a run that included the latest finish in US Open history against Sinner, who held a match point before Alcaraz finally prevailed at 2.50am – the Spaniard simply refused to allow fatigue to become a factor.
“It’s no time to be tired, in the final round of a grand slam,” said Alcaraz in the aftermath of a victory earned largely at the net, from where he persistently and successfully sought to shorten the rallies. “You have to give everything on court, you have to give everything that you have inside.”
In that respect, Ruud was every inch the Spaniard’s equal. The Norwegian fifth seed, contesting his second grand slam final in three months, took time to find his feet in the contest, but this performance was a world away from the hammering he took against Nadal at the French Open.
Anxious to nullify the threat posed by Alcaraz’s unusual blend of power and finesse, Ruud had made it his goal to maintain a decent length off the ground. As he staged a brilliant recovery from a set and a break down, the 23-year-old was as good as his word. He frequently drove Alcaraz off the baseline with the pace and depth of his groundstrokes, and frequently drove him to distraction with his dogged defensive skills and ability to run down the Spaniard’s drop shots.
As Alcaraz began to tire mentally, if not physically, his shot selection started to betray him. Time after time, drop shots found the net or sat up invitingly for Ruud to dispatch. Sensing opportunity, the Norwegian redoubled his efforts, thrashing down serves at a pace we have rarely seen from him and adding greater venom to his destructive topspin forehand. It was as much as Alcaraz could do to hang on.
At 5-6 in the third set, Alcaraz faced two set points that threatened to swing the contest decisively in Ruud’s favour. He met the challenge head on, boldly persisting with his net-rushing tactics to angle away a magical, lunging volley before punching away an overhead. They were blows from which Ruud, who barely found the court in the ensuing tiebreak, would never recover.
“He just played too good on those points,” said Ruud. “We’ve seen it many times before, he steps up when he needs to. When it’s close, he pulls out great shots. All credit to him.
“At the same time, I’m proud of the match and the two weeks. I gave it all. I left it all out on the court. Played some phenomenal tennis throughout the two weeks, probably my best tennis ever on this surface. So I’m very happy in the end.”
It is too soon to declare the dawn of a new era. Even as the US Open entered its final hours, reports emanating from Australia suggested Novak Djokovic will be permitted to enter the country in January to compete at Melbourne Park, where he has been the champion on nine occasions.
Body allowing, Nadal will no doubt be there too to defend his title, as will Daniil Medvedev, whose title defence in New York was ended early by Nick Kyrgios. But while the old guard may endure, they will know they have a pressing new problem.
“I’m hungry for more,” said Alcaraz. “I want to be [at] the top for many, many weeks, hopefully many years. I’m going to work hard again after this amazing two weeks. I’m going to fight for more of this.”