Carlos Alcaraz continues to break precocious records in his debut in the final draw of the US Open. After his victory against the British Cameron Norrie, the young Murcian tennis player has become one of the youngest to have achieved at least one victory in the final draw of the four Grand Slam at 18 years, 3 months and 25 days.
Alcaraz has achieved this feat during this 2021 season, when he won in the first round of the Australian Open the Dutch Botic Van de Zandschulp, number 151 in the world; at Roland Garros also Spanish Bernabé Zapata (128); at Wimbledon the Japanese Yasutaka Uchiyama (116); and now in the US Open to the British Cameron Norrie, number 26 in the world.
In this way Alcaraz outperforms Rafa Nadal, who managed to win in the final draw of the four Grand Slam with 18 years, 11 months and 20 days after winning at Wimbledon 2003 to the Croatian Mario Ancic (68 of the world), in the US Open of that year to the Spanish Fernando Vicente (61), in the Australian Open of 2004 to the Czech Michal Tabara (215) and, finally, in Roland Garros of 2005 to the German Lars Burgsmuller (96).
Over the age of 19, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer managed to complete their poker of victories in the four Grand Slam. The Serbian achieved it with 19 years, 7 months and 24 days after winning at Roland Garros 2005 the American Robby Ginepri (71st in the world), at Wimbledon that year the Argentine Juan Monaco (68), at the US Open that year the Frenchman Gael Monfils (43) and had to wait for the Open de Australia in 2007 to close this milestone with his victory over Chilean Nicolás Massú (43rd in the world).
The oldest of the Big Three to win in the four Grand Slam has been the Swiss Roger Federer, who did it at 19 years, 10 months and 17 days. Federer beat American Michael Chang (38th in the world) at the Australian Open in 2000, Australian Wayne Arthurs (106) at Roland Garros (106), at the 2000 US Open against Dutchman Peter Wessels (89) and he achieved close this achievement at Wimbledon 2001 by defeating Belgian Oliver Rochus (83). Alcaraz himself played down this fact in the press conference after his previous match but admitted that “this means that I am doing things well.” Only time will tell if Alcaraz also manages to reach these three tennis giants.