Carlos Alcaraz is no one-hit wonder.
When Alcaraz arrived at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center 12 months ago, he was a young man with all the buzz to go along with his buzz cut: a 19-year-old from small-town Spain who had rocketed up the rankings and seemed ready to take on the world. Television commentators, tennis journalists and fellow pros all marveled at the teen’s jaw-dropping skill set, his flashy repertoire of shots, his lightning speed, and court savvy.
Everyone wanted a look at the kid, and boy, did he deliver.
In only his second appearance in Flushing, Alcaraz battled heroically through three successive electrifying, enervating five-setters en route to claiming his first major championship, loading up on new admirers with every match and “Did you see that?” additions to his highlight reel.
The third-seeded Alcaraz confidently dispatched Casper Ruud in the final to become the youngest US Open champion since Pete Sampras in 1990. With his triumph, the Spaniard also seized the No. 1 ranking, becoming the youngest men’s No. 1 in the history of the ATP rankings.
Though Alcaraz was forced to skip the next major, the Australian Open this January, with a hamstring injury, the young man from Murcia bounced back and won Indian Wells, Barcelona and Madrid this spring. At Roland Garros in June, Alcaraz advanced to face Novak Djokovic in a hotly-anticipated semifinal, their first clash in a major. But after splitting two scorching sets, with spectators primed for an epic, the youngster’s legs suddenly went limp. Alcaraz was crippled by full-body cramps and, he later admitted, nerves.
A true titanic battle for supremacy between the Big Three’s last man standing (at least for now, with Rafael Nadal on the sidelines) and the troika’s presumed successor would have to wait.
But not for long.
Less than a month later, No. 1 Alcaraz and No. 2 Djokovic met in the Wimbledon final. The Serb, a seven-time Wimbledon champion, had not been beaten on Centre Court at the All England Club in a decade (39 straight matches). Alcaraz gamely rebounded from a first-set drubbing to take the second in a tense tiebreak. The Spaniard turned the tables on Djokovic and shattered his spirit by finally breaking serve in a heart-stopping, 26-minute, 32-point fifth game in the third set. Alcaraz seemed to be learning how to play on grass in real time, game by game, against Djokovic, the master of the art.
Alcaraz prevailed in stunning form, an epic five-set upset of the reigning champ, to collect his second major crown. With the King of Spain in the stands, Alcaraz was no longer the prince-in-waiting. Few could resist categorizing Alcaraz’s meteoric rise and defeat of Djokovic as the definitive passing of the torch between the Big Three and the upstart Spaniard.
“I thought I would have trouble with you only on clay, and maybe hard court, but now it’s a different story,” admitted Djokovic on-court after his defeat on Wimbledon grass.
“I think people have been talking in the past 12 months or so about his game consisting of certain elements from Roger, Rafa, and myself,” the Serb said afterwards in his press conference. “I would agree with that. I think he's got basically best of all three worlds. He's got this mental resilience and, really, maturity for someone who is 20 years old. It's quite impressive.”
"I haven't played a player like him ever, to be honest,” Djokovic continued. “Carlos is a very complete player.”
Still young enough at 20 to be known by the diminutive nickname 'Carlitos,' and continue to live at home with his parents, with two major titles, a dozen tournament wins (including four Masters 1000 events), and the No. 1 ranking, Alcaraz is already ahead of the pace set by the Big Three. Those greats all had weaknesses in their youth; the Spaniard’s game appears to have none. Alcaraz is a magnetic presence, a player who entertains not just with electrifying shot-making but also with his exuberance on court.
The kid plainly loves to play.
The knock on Alcaraz, if there is one, in 2023 is not much different than it was a year ago: His youthful exuberance can be a hindrance, and he hasn’t fully learned how to harness his awesome arsenal of weapons. Alcaraz can default too easily to innate aggression, and his decision-making can still be a little suspect. It’s a problem that comes with a surfeit of talent: too many choices. Alcaraz can occasionally overdo it on the derring-do drop shots, great as he is at them, and go for too much when more pragmatic play would serve him better.
This summer on hard courts, Alcaraz had yet to rise to the level we’ve quickly learned to expect from him. At the Masters 1000 event in Toronto he lost in the quarterfinals to the American Tommy Paul. In Cincinnati, Alcaraz struggled with his game, forced to go the distance in each of four rounds before the final.
But in the final against Djokovic, an immediate classic in extreme heat—and at 3 hours, 49 minutes, the longest three-set Masters 1000 final in history—Alcaraz finally found his game. But so did the Serb, who for most of the second set it looked like this time he would be the one to wilt. The two foes, separated by an age difference of 16 years, produced as stunning a final as we’ve seen in recent years outside the majors. Djokovic somehow outlasted Alcaraz in three impossibly close, impossibly withering, impossibly entertaining sets, 7-5, 6-7(7), 7-6(4), setting up the tantalizing possibility of a third consecutive meeting between the two in a major, this time at the US Open.
A year ago at this time, the big question was whether Alcaraz would win many, or any more, majors. Was the teenager a legitimate heir to the Big Three? There are few doubts 12 months later. The Carlos Alcaraz era is decidedly upon us.
Now, if the next couple years are also the era of yet another great men’s tennis rivalry, between Alcaraz and Djokovic–a Spain-versus-Serbia redux–few tennis fans would complain. The golden age of men’s tennis lives on.
