It is not only on the tennis court that Carlos Alcaraz moves like Speedy Gonzales, the cartoon speedster with whom Stefanos Tsitsipas has aptly compared him.
The Spaniard’s march through the record books has been conducted at a similarly exponential rate. At the age of 20, Alcaraz has already become the youngest year-end No 1 in ATP Tour history, the youngest US Open champion in 32 years and the youngest grand slam winner since Rafael Nadal in 2005.
Now, after a grand total of just 11 matches on grass, Alcaraz is also the youngest champion at Queen’s Club since Lleyton Hewitt in 2006 and a genuine contender for Wimbledon, where he will arrive in a week’s time as the top seed after a 6-4, 6-4 win over Australia’s Alex de Minaur. The victory, which saw him reclaim the world No 1 ranking from Novak Djokovic, makes Alcaraz the first man under the age of 21 to win his maiden final on grass since Richard Gasquet claimed the title in Nottingham 18 years ago.
The speed of Alcaraz’s transformation from grass-court rookie to grass-court champion has been nothing short of extraordinary. Six days ago, he came perilously close to an opening-round exit against Arthur Rinderknech, a lucky loser ranked 83 in the world. Since edging past the Frenchman in a third-set tiebreaker, Alcaraz has rattled off four straight wins against players ranked in the top 36 without dropping a set, visibly growing in authority and belief with each stinging forehand and acrobatic volley.
“I have a lot of confidence right now coming into Wimbledon,” said Alcaraz. “I ended the week playing at a high level, so right now I feel one of the favourites to win Wimbledon.
“But honestly, I have to get more experience on grass. Even if I won the title, I just played 11 matches in my career on grass, so I have to get more experience, more hours.
“But obviously after beating amazing guys, great players, and the level that I played, I consider myself one of the favourites.”
De Minaur held match points in his only previous meeting with Alcaraz, which came last year in Barcelona, and the 24-year-old once again caused his feted opponent plenty of problems with his flat, zippy groundstrokes. The depth and penetration of the Australian’s ball frequently made Alcaraz catch the ball fractionally late or forced him into improvisation. The Spaniard’s difficulties were compounded by De Minaur’s fleetness of foot: confronted by one of the few opponents able to match his own lightning speed, Alcaraz was unusually hesitant in deploying his signature drop shot.
These factors converged in the eighth game, where Alcaraz faced his only real crisis of the afternoon. It came after the Spaniard shaped to feather the ball short only to prod an approach shot towards the baseline. De Minaur was alive to the ploy and, having steered a precise passing shot down the line to reach deuce, he caught Alcaraz at his feet with a crisp backhand return to bring up the first break point of the match. Convert it, and he would serve for the first set.
Alcaraz averted the danger with a 137mph ace, but De Minaur immediately fashioned a second opportunity, producing a majestic backhand pass after chasing down a seemingly unreachable volley. This time, the elements came to Alcaraz’s rescue in the form of a strong breeze that brought some respite to what was an otherwise swelteringly hot afternoon. As the wind caused the ball to hold up in the air, De Minaur produced a tame forehand from which Alcaraz was able to force an error. The Australian would not see another break point.
“I don’t think they were turning points as such,” said De Minaur. “I think I had my opportunities there, and I had a kind of a short ball, and then a big gust of wind kind of made me overrun the ball a little bit.”
Be that as it may, Alcaraz went on to hold and, when De Minaur made a hash of an approach shot to fall break point down in the next game, the Spaniard was clinical, establishing himself in a rally he had no right to win with a scrambled return and a stretching sliced backhand, before abruptly changing the pace with a haymaker of a forehand.
Ultimately, the reality of the contest was simple. Both men faced two break points. Alcaraz saved both while De Minaur, who double-faulted to fall behind in the fifth game of the second set, conceded both.
The only cloud on Alcaraz’s horizon was the medical timeout he took at the end of the opening set to have his thigh strapped. He insisted afterwards that it would not be a problem. A greater obstacle, for all his exponential progress on a previously problematic surface, will be beating Djokovic over five sets at Wimbledon, where the Serbian holder will be aiming to equal Roger Federer’s haul of eight titles.
“I saw a statistic that Novak has won more matches in Wimbledon that the other top 20 players [put together],” said Alcaraz.
“What can I say about that, you know? I mean, Novak is the main favourite to win Wimbledon. That’s obvious. But I will try to play at this level, to have chances to beat him or make the final.
“I will have chances, that’s for sure. But I see Novak as the main favourite.”
On both counts, it is difficult to argue.