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After capturing his third title of the 2022 season in Barcelona, Carlos Alcaraz has managed to achieve a significant career breakthrough. With the ATP rankings published today, he is officially a top 10 player for the first time. In fact, he has actually managed to achieve a ranking of number 9 – just for clarification! His rise through the rankings over the last 12 months has been spectacular. And really, it’s been a joy to see him grow and develop into the player he is right now.
Therefore, I figured it was a good time to highlight exactly what Alcaraz has been able to achieve in his short career to date. Let me get started with some amazing facts on this Spanish sensation right now.
Rise of 100+ Ranking Places
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Looking back at the rankings’ history for Carlos Alcaraz, at the end of April 2021, he was ranked 120 in the world. Given his current ranking of number 9, this is an enormous 100+ place increase! I can’t think of any other player that has managed to enjoy a ranking surge of such impressive numbers – definitely not around the world’s top 100. So of course, this alone is a seriously outrageous achievement.
Three Titles in 2022 Alone
Given that Alcaraz’s career is still so new, we can’t exactly look back through years and years of data to describe his journey. Instead, I can identify his performance in 2022 alone as one of his most impressive feats to date. At the time of writing, he is one of only three players to have won three titles in 2022. The other two include Rafael Nadal and Andrey Rublev, which puts him in fairly good company.
Of course, if he continues along his current path, I wouldn’t be surprised if this tally increases quite significantly throughout the season.
Head to Head Against Top 10 Players
It goes without saying that thanks to his age, Alcaraz is constantly improving. This is true on almost a weekly basis it seems. Yet already, some of the performances and results he has put in against top 10 players are just staggering. Take Stefanos Tsitsipas as an example, Alcaraz has managed to beat him on all three occasions that they have played. The most recent was in Barcelona on the clay – arguably Tsitsipas’ favorite surface.
Then you’ve got Berrettini. Alcaraz enjoys a 2-1 head-to-head against him right now, with the only loss coming in the fifth set breaker at the 2022 Australian Open. He also has a 2-0 head-to-head against Casper Ruud, one of the most promising prospects on the tour.
Age of Top 10 Breakthrough
Since this is the story everyone is talking about right now, I had to mention it. Alcaraz is officially inside the world’s top 10 right now, and he has achieved this at age 18. The last man to do this as an 18-year-old was Rafael Nadal, which tells you all you need to know really. Fun fact – Nadal also did this after winning the Barcelona title in 2005.
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