Carlos Alcaraz improves the Big Three in wins over top-10

Carlos Alcaraz placeholder image has reason to smile. And all despite the painful defeat suffered in the round of 16 of the Masters 1,000 in Paris-Bercy against Frenchman Hugo Gaston, after dominating the first set 4-2 and the second 5-0 (fell 4-6 and 5-7). Surely the Murcian will learn to better withstand the pressure of a hostile public from now on, but if he can extract something from his passing through the French capital are positive conclusions.

Thanks to your win over Jannik Sinner In the round of 16 of the Parisian tournament, Alcaraz sealed the third victory against a top-10 in his career and, in addition, in the same season. Before beating the Italian (9th ATP), Juan Carlos Ferrero’s pupil had beaten Stefanos Tsitsipas (3rd) at the US Open now Matteo berrettini (7th) at the ATP 500 in Vienna, all in a matter of a few weeks. This brilliant final stretch of the year allows Alcaraz equal Rafa Nadal, as the only member of the Big three who achieved three victories against the top ten in the ranking in the same season with only 18 springs. In 2005, the Spaniard beat Gaston Gaudio (6th) and Guillermo Coria (9th) in Monte Carlo and Roger Federer (1st) at Roland Garros, the edition in which he won his first Musketeers Cup. (Nadal also beat top-10s like Costa, Moya or Roddick, but never three of them in the same course at the age of 18.)

It should be noted that, at Alcaraz’s age, Federer had only beaten Carlos Moyá and Nicolas Kiefer as top-10 (and also not in the same season), while Novak Djokovic could only do the same with Mariano Puerta. Some references that put in a very high value what was achieved in this 2021 course by an Alcaraz that is just taking its first steps in the elite. Its roof is still a long way from being discovered …