NEW YORK – When Carlos Alcaraz appeared to begin his journey to a second US open title, he debuted a shaved head on his scalp.
The explanation was that his brother Alvaro used the wrong clipper to rock the haircut so badly, he needed to start fresh.
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But by the end of Sunday’s tournament, the military-style crew cuts seemed like a message, not a mistake, when Alcaraz re-claimed the No. 1 rankings from his main rival Jannik Sinner in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory.
With its ability to launch a full attack on the tennis record book, Alcaraz means business. And it is important to understand that the big three of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have the pace to overtake them all by young people from Murcia, Spain.
After 22 years, four months and two days, Alcaraz became the youngest player to win six major titles during his open era. He did it at the US Open, where he was in full command against his game at almost every moment of every match, dropping only one set on his way to the trophy. He did it with relentless efficiency that he didn’t show to any of the 18 Grand Slams he played before. And he did it in a way that suggested he was just starting out.
“It’s amazing to meet the goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year,” he said. “One of the first goals I had during the season was to try and recover my number one as quickly as possible or to finish the year.
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It’s definitely a long way from six majors to Djokovic’s 24. This will likely be the greatest marker of all time when a 38-year-old says goodbye to the sport next year or within two years. Even Djokovic admitted that after losing to Alkaraz in the semi-finals, even Djokovic had little chance of passing through him and the sinners at this stage.
However, if Alkaraz averages two majors over the next nine years, he will catch Djokovic by the age of 31.
It certainly sounds ridiculous. And there are all kinds of factors, from health to simple loss of desire, and you can derail him somewhere along the way. Ten years of sports is a very long time.
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But have you seen this guy play? And did you think he still lives with his Spanish parents and would have his siblings cut their hair from time to time?
The point is, he’s still a child. He’s still improving. And every time he wins any of these he shows something new.
In this tournament, it was a serve. It’s not a weakness, but Alkaraz has no weaknesses – that was the most human part of his game. However, in the US, at the Open, he scored 84% of the first points out of all players who advanced from the first round. He also scored 63% of the second serve points that led the tournament. He was slightly broken in 101 service games.
All of this is significantly higher than his stats in the year when he scored 73% of his first service points and 57% of his second service points, earning 86% of his time.
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Alkaraz may not always serve it effectively, but now it shows he can. And when he does, no one can touch him.
“I feel this is the best tournament so far,” he said. “I’m proud because my level of consistency throughout the tournament was really, really, really high. That’s something I’ve been working on and I think I thought this tournament was really consistent.”
Alcaraz heads into the fall season with the goal of finishing his second year-end number one spot, as was in 2022. This is another important record to shoot, given that Djokovic set the bar to 8.
But everyone realizes that in modern games it is primarily about majors. And when Alcaraz arrives in Australia next January, there will be pressure to win that title – not a major he has yet to claim – and will become the ninth man to win a career grand slam.
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He probably does that too. The reality is that in history, tennis players have not checked so many boxes early in their careers. Even Nadal, who broke on Sunday as the youngest person to reach No. 6, did not have this kind of full-scale ability a little later.
Currently, the only player taking on the challenge of Carlos Alcaraz (right) is Giannik Thinner. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
(AP News)
Everything Alkaraz has achieved so far appears earlier than planned. It is foolish to doubt his ability to pursue the sacred record of tennis.
“To be honest, that’s my first goal,” he said. “When you think about what you want to improve, what you want to achieve, what you want to achieve, what you’re doing to complete your career grand slam. You’re clearly going to do that next year.”
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Earlier this year, the Netflix Docusary, produced in Spain, followed Alcaraz over the 2024 season, focusing primarily on his groundbreaking victory at the French Open, his repeated Wimbledon titles, and the crushing loss to Djokovic in the Olympic Finals.
However, the dominant theme of the film was his general desire to praise his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero and agent Albert Molina to celebrate his tastes in celebration of his big victory in Ibiza, and to reserve at least a part of his life to experience something like most other 21-year-olds.
Perhaps the filmmaker has built that tension for dramatic effects and focusing on his off-court habits certainly seemed at odds with the fact that Alcaraz won two majors last year.
But it underlined the reality that Ferrero has publicly acknowledged many times. For this charismatic child from Spain, Ferrero is the best ever in his hands. It is his job to take him where his talent deserves to go, and that will happen at the moment when Alcaraz is as serious as Ferrero.
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We saw that marriages of its goals and potential destinations begin to form in this US open that could not stop Alcaraz.
“I think he’s growing,” Ferrero said. “It’s a way of life. It’s natural. It makes it very clear what he needs to improve in court and improve in court. He’s more mature to believe that this kind of thing can be improved.”
Certainly there is a considerable distance between where he is now and the greatest distance ever. It would be unfair to other players around the world to ask him to do this over and over again over the next decade, like Djokovic.
However, with Major No. 6 playing in just 19 Grand Slams, Alcaraz deserves a chance to answer that question. At this point, are you really going to doubt him?
