Winner of Casper Ruud, the Norwegian also a great golfer, in the final of the US Open Carlos Alcaraz is one of the tennis players quick to swap the yellow ball for the small white ball.
Carlos Alcaraz, golf
He is not yet at the level of Mardy Fish, the former American champion who participated in the 3M open on the PGA Tour in July and does not display Rafa Nadal’s scratch index either, but Alcaraz already has a solid swing.
. He skips the first rounds of 2022 and makes his seasonal debut at the Australian Open, where he is for the first time among the top seeds in a Grand Slam, overtakes Alejandro Tabilo and Dusan Lajovic before being eliminated at the tie-break of the fifth set from the nº 7 of the Matteo Berrettini world.
At his seasonal debut on clay in Rio de Janeiro, he takes revenge on Berrettini in the quarter-finals and wins his first tournament in the ATP 500 category, beating Diego Schwartzman in two sets in the final, a result that brings him to 19th place in the world.
. He then made his debut in the Spanish Davis Cup team in the preliminary round won 3-1 with Romania and defeated Marius Copil in the only match played. In Indian Wells he reaches his first semifinal in a Masters 1000 without losing any set, beats the top 20 Roberto Bautista Agut and Cameron Norrie among others and is defeated in the third set by Nadal.
At the next Miami Open he achieved the most important result from the beginning of his career, winning his first title in a Masters 1000; after having eliminated in two sets Fucsovic, Cilic and the nº 5 of the world Tsitsipas, in the quarters overcomes Kecmanovic in the third set at the end of a spectacular and balanced match.
In the semifinals he has the best of two tie-breaks on the defending champion and nº 10 of the world Hurkacz and in the final he defeats the nº 8 of the Casper Ruud ranking with a score of 7-5, 6-4. Not yet nineteen, he becomes the youngest player to have won the tournament, as well as the first Spaniard, and the 11th in the world rankings, new best ranking.
After the elimination in the second round of the Monte-Carlo Masters at the hands of Sebastian Korda, he won the ATP 500 in Barcelona by defeating Pablo Carreño Busta 6-3, 6-2 in the final. During the tournament he eliminates Kwon Soon-woo, Jaume Munar, world no.5 Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals and Alex De Minaur in the semifinals.
He thus made his debut in the world top 10, in 9th position. In the Masters 1000 Madrid he overtakes Nikoloz Basilašvili and in the second round Cameron Norrie in the best of three sets. In the quarter-finals he finds his idol and No.
4 in the ranking Rafael Nadal, who had beaten him in the first two matches played, and imposes himself with the score of 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 despite an ankle injury during the second set. He thus becomes the youngest semifinalist in the history of the tournament and faces the world no.1 Novak Đoković, who surpasses with a score of 6 (5) -7, 7-5, 7-6 (5) after three and a half hours of play, reaching its fourth final of the season, as well as the second in this category.
In the final he defeats the nº 3 of the world and defending champion Alexander Zverev after an hour and two minutes of play with a score of 6-3, 6-1; at the end of the tournament he rises to 6th place in the world. He does not take part in the Internazionali d’Italia and returns to the field at Roland Garros, overcomes Londero in the first round and wins in the fifth set comeback against Ramos Viñolas.
He then takes his revenge on Korda, to whom he concedes only 10 games, and enters the quarters with another clear success over Chačanov. He finds Zverev, who in turn takes revenge by beating him in the fourth set. He reaches for the first time the fourth round at Wimbledon: in the first round he eliminates Jan-Lennard Struff after losing the first two sets, and after the successes on Tallon Griekspoor and Oscar Otte he gives in the fourth set to Jannik Sinner.
He suffered his first defeat in a major circuit final at the next ATP 500 in Hamburg, unexpectedly beaten in three sets by ranking No. 62 Lorenzo Musetti, in his first ATP title; at the end of the tournament Alcaraz rises to 5th place in the world.
The following week he reached the final at the ATP 250 in Umag losing once again to Jannik Sinner. Nonetheless, he improved his best ranking even further, reaching 4th place in the world rankings. At the Masters 1000 in Montréal he was beaten by Tommy Paul in the first round, while in Cincinnati he was eliminated in three sets by Cameron Norrie in the quarter-finals.
He arrives at the US Open credited with the third seed: overcomes the first three rounds with victories in three sets against Sebastián Báez, Federico Coria and Jenson Brooksby, and then wins in the fifth set against the fifteenth seeded Marin Čilić , the eleventh seeded Jannik Sinner, the latter in a clash that lasted over five hours of play after having also canceled a match point and the surprise of the tournament Frances Tiafoe.
In the first Grand Slam final of his career he faces Casper Ruud, against whom he is called to compete for both the first title at Major level and the first place in the world rankings. He manages to repeat the performance played against the Norwegian in Miami in March, triumphing in four sets for 6-4, 2-6, 7-61, 6-3.
This victory becomes the most prestigious of his career as it allows him to add his first Grand Slam title to the showcase and rise to the top of the world rankings. In this way Alcaraz becomes the youngest player ever to become number one in the world, at just 19 years and 4 months.
