Carlos Alcaraz is proving to be a trailblazer, finally living up to his potential with an outstanding 2023 so far. The Spaniard, who is the top-ranked men’s tennis player in the world after a thrilling win at the Wimbledon Championships, took the world by storm by achieving the feat at the age of 20. Apart from his Wimbledon performance, Alcaraz’s consistency is of a player who is experienced and legendary, making him shatter many records in the process.
While Carlos Alcaraz has always idolized Swiss maestro Roger Federer, he is generally being compared more with fellow countryman who has won 22 Grand Slams, Rafael Nadal. There are many parts of Alcaraz’s game which resemble Nadal’s, which have made a lot of tennis enthusiasts, former players and pundits believe that the current World No.1 is better than the legend when he was 20 back in the mid-2000s. With lots up for grabs in the 2023 season, Alcaraz could end up going past Nadal’s winning percentage 18 years ago, when he announced himself on the ATP Tour in some fashion.
Carlos Alcaraz to trump Rafael Nadal and Kent Carlsson?
In 2005, Rafael Nadal won eleven men’s singles titles, which included 4 Masters trophies and his first-ever French Open win. Being a milestone year for him, Nadal won a remarkable 79 out of the 89 matches he played in, which comes up to a jaw-dropping win percentage of 88.76%. The following year was also good for Nadal, who turned 20 on June 3, 2006, as he still managed to achieve a win percentage of 84.29%.
However, if Carlos Alcaraz’s numbers are taken this year, he has won 47 out of the 51 matches he has played in so far. It means his win percentage is a staggering 92.16%. When it comes to the all-time record though, it is not just Nadal who Alcaraz could best. The relatively unknown Swedish player, Kent Carlsson owned the year 1988 by jumping from World No.12 to World No.6. This is because the then 20-year-old had won a whopping 50 out of the 56 matches he had played, including a French Open win. Even then, the winning percentage was 89.29% by the time the season end.
Alcaraz is likely to play in a minimum of 7 more tournaments, including the current Rogers Cup edition in which he is playing in. Assuming he is fit to play in all of them but loses in 5 of those, chances are that he could end up playing roughly 90-95 matches by winning around 81-86 of those. This means that the win percentage could at the very least come to 90-91%. That would also be good enough for the dynamic Spaniard to clinch the all-time record, which has been existent since the last 35 years.
How does Alcaraz’s best stack up to Nadal, Djokovic and Federer?
Statistically though, if a full season is considered, Nadal was at his very best 10 years ago in 2013. It is considered as one of tennis’ comebacks of all time as the Spanish superstar had won the French Open and US Open amongst his 10 titles overall, which included a 22-match winning streak on outdoor hard courts. Winning 74 out of 81 matches in total, his win percentage was a whopping 91.36%, which came at the age of 27.
When it comes to Roger Federer, he was easily at the peak of his powers in the year 2006 in which turned 25 in August. It is one of the greatest seasons ever played by any men’s singles player on the ATP Tour as he lost just 5 out of the 97 completed matches he played in. He took home the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open titles. Federer ended up with a win percentage of 94.85%.
And the other member of the ‘Big Three’, Novak Djokovic had two remarkable seasons, i.e. 2011 and 2015. While many consider 2011 as his best, he actually bettered that tally in 2015. In 2011, Djokovic turned 24 and he won 70 out of 76 matches and mirroring Federer 2006, he too won Grand Slams in Melbourne, London and New York City. Four years later, he won those three Slams in a single year again but added to that with an ATP World Tour Finals win and overall, won 12 titles as compared to 10 in 2011. As a result, he won 82 out of 88 matches that year, with a win record of 93.2%.
It is safe to say that Carlos Alcaraz is having a similar gigantic season which could make him reach legendary status at a younger age than the Big Three. Winning the US Open and a minimum of 2 Grand Slams were common denominators for the trio and as a result, the Spaniard needs to defend his title at the Flushing Meadows successfully. Having won 6 titles this year, Alcaraz also needs to win at least four more of those to be in the race, which will be interesting to see how he keeps up, for sure.
