Alcaraz is 20 years old: where were the members of the Big 3 at his age?

Sport Number of Grand Slams

This is the criterion most often used to determine the famous “GOAT” (“greatest of all times”, best player of all time). Carlos Alcaraz is very precocious, but at this level he still lags slightly behind his glorious elder Rafael Nadal. The latter had gleaned his first Major at Roland-Garros in 2005 in the wake of his 19th birthday, while “Carlitos” had to wait four short additional months to do the same at the US Open 2022.

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At Roland-Garros, the Murcian could win the second one a month after his 20th birthday, which would still be a little slower than “Rafa”. The latter had conquered his second Coupe des Mousquetaires five days after having blown out his twenty candles on the side of the Porte d’Auteuil, a tradition now. However, the gap would narrow. On this level, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer had not yet broken through. The Serb had to wait until he was 20 years and 8 months old to triumph at the Australian Open. For the Swiss, the first triumph was even later at Wimbledon in 2003 (21 years and 11 months), which did not prevent the two men from catching up afterwards.

Sport Global honors

Again, Alcaraz impresses with already 9 titles on the clock. This is almost double the record of Novak Djokovic (5 trophies including a Masters 1000) at the same age, and nine times more than… Roger Federer who had only been crowned in Milan. A rather striking statistic insofar as the Swiss is to date the only member of the Big 3 to have exceeded the bar of 100 titles (103) and that the Serb (93), given his rhythm over the past year (7 trophies ), can hope to beat Jimmy Connors’ record (109). But in terms of precocity, Nadal is still above with 16 titles at exactly 20 years old (and even 17 if we count Roland-Garros 5 days after his 20th birthday). A little comparison between the two Spaniards is in order:

• Alcaraz at 20 years old: 1 Grand Slam, 3 Masters 1000, 3 ATP 500 and 2 ATP 250
• Nadal at 20 years old: 1 Grand Slam, 6 Masters 1000, 5 ATP 500 and 4 ATP 250

Sport Time spent as world number 1

On this criterion, Carlos Alcaraz is very advanced. By winning in Flushing last September, the Murcian became at 19 years and 4 months the youngest world number 1 since the creation of the ATP ranking in 1973 and he already has 22 weeks spent on the throne at the current time. Neither Roger Federer, nor Rafael Nadal, nor Novak Djokovic had managed to do the same. They had to wait respectively 22 years and 6 months, 22 years and 2 months and 24 years and 2 months to grant themselves this envied status.

Sport Number of wins and success percentage

At just 20 years old, Carlos Alcaraz has already played 150 matches on the main circuit. It’s impressive, but much less than Nadal, still him, who flirted with the 200 mark (198), exceeded even following his second title at Roland-Garros (201 matches at 20 years and 5 days). For the comparison to be as fair as possible, only the matches won at Porte d’Auteuil at the very moment of the 20th anniversary have been counted. Roger Federer had also played a little more than Alcaraz, 156 times to be precise, while Novak Djokovic was a little behind with 128 games on the clock. But in proportion of victories, the two Spaniards are far ahead:

1. Nadal : 156 wins for 198 matches, i.e. 78.8% success
2. Alcaraz : 117 wins for 150 matches, i.e. 78% success
3. Djokovic : 88 wins for 128 matches or 68.8% success
4. Federer : 91 wins for 156 matches or 58.3% success

Federer having finished his career with almost 82% of victories (1251 out of 1526), ​​he made an exceptional catch-up afterwards. His statistics therefore have a relative value, but they indicate that Alcaraz, at this stage of his career, is in the passing times of the “Big 3” and rather in the top of the basket. Will he be able to keep up the pace over the next 15 years like the three monsters in their time? Here is all the question.