Carlos Alcaraz Is Way Ahead of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic With Huge Title Advantage

At the age of 20 years and 78 days, Carlos Alcaraz has taken the tennis world by storm. The Wimbledon 2023 Championship win is the 12th men’s singles title of his professional career. His sheer talent and ability to beat the best at such a young age has already made many compare the Spaniard with Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

With 12 titles to his name already, which include 2 Grand Slams, Alcaraz is ahead of Federer and Djokovic at this stage of his career. It would be fair to say that both the former World No.1s are late bloomers in the game.

How far ahead is Carlos Alcaraz?

Roger Federer won his first Grand Slam title at the age of 22, which happened to be the 2003 Wimbledon Championships. Making his ATP Tour debut in 1998 at the age of 17, Federer managed to win just 4 men’s singles titles until the US Open 2002. To a large extent, he had to wait for the likes of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi to call it a day while also battle more experienced players before he could assert his dominance on the game.

Remarkably, Novak Djokovic managed to win his 5th ATP Tour title when he turned 20 years and 83 days old. This was at the 2007 Canadian Masters in which Djokovic created history by becoming the first-ever men’s singles player to defeat the World No.3 (Andy Roddick), World No.2 (Rafael Nadal) and the World No.1 player (Roger Federer) in back-to-back matches in a Masters series. The Serbian followed it up by making it to the finals of the US Open which followed soon after the Rogers Cup, although Roger Federer went on to win that clash.

However, Novak Djokovic won his first Grand Slam in January 2008. As a result, Carlos Alcaraz is way ahead and like Roger Federer, might be the trailblazer to inspire a new generation of players who could win Grand Slams consistently. Yet, in his already short career, Alcaraz has suffered from a series of injuries from time to time and that could be a huge worry.

Besides injuries, there is always the threat that Alcaraz’s game might be found out by his competitors and as a result, becoming the dominant No.1 might not become a reality at all. Just ask Roger Federer, who at his peak, was finally challenged and then overpowered on many occasions by Rafael Nadal across all surfaces and venues.

Alcaraz still wary of Djokovic and Nadal

Carlos Alcaraz is not someone to be overconfident for sure, having seen many ups and downs already despite the abundant talent he possesses. Recently, after he won the Wimbledon, Alcaraz rubbished theories in an interview with BBC Sport that the ‘Big Three’ era is officially over. In fact, the World No.1 acknowledged the fact that as long as Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic continue playing on the Tour, they will always remain the favorites when it comes to winning big titles. Despite their aging bodies, they cannot be taken for granted.