ATP Tour

All smiles: Alcaraz's joyful game carried him to No. 1

In 2022, Carlos Alcaraz broke Lleyton Hewitt's record as the youngest World No. 1 when he rose to the summit of the PIF ATP Rankings at the age of 19. View All No. 1 Features.

First week at No. 1: 12 September 2022
Total weeks at No. 1: 36
Year-End No. 1: 2022

At World No. 1
Alcaraz completed a historic double at the 2022 US Open by winning his maiden Grand Slam title and rising to the top spot in the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time. In a high-stakes final that doubled as a straight shootout for No. 1, Alcaraz defeated Casper Ruud in four sets to reach the pinnacle of the men's game. The Spaniard held onto his position to finish 2022 as ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF, receiving the honour at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin despite missing the season finale due to injury. In 2023, Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic battled it out in a thrilling fight for No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings. Throughout the year, the top spot switched seven times between the two players, which marked the third-most No. 1 changes in season after 1983 (10) and 1999 (8).

Grand Slam Highlights
Alcaraz captured consecutive Wimbledon titles in 2023-24 and back-to-back Roland Garros crowns in 2024-25, but he made his first big Grand Slam statement at the US Open. The Spaniard went all the way in his second appearance at the hard-court major in 2022. A marathon man in New York, Alcaraz won consecutive five-setters against Marin Cilic, Jannik Sinner and Frances Tiafoe before claiming his first major crown against Ruud. Along the way, he saved a match point against Sinner in a quarter-final match that ended at a record-late 2:50 a.m. In 2023, Alcaraz won Wimbledon by ending Djokovic's 34-match winning streak at the grass-court major. After losing just two sets en route to the final, Alcaraz weathered an early Djokovic storm to win a classic five-set final — a result that prevented the Serbian from overtaking him as No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings. At Roland Garros in 2025, Alcaraz and Sinner contested the first major final of their budding rivalry, delivering a five-hour and 29-minute epic, the longest final in the tournament's history. Alcaraz saved three straight championship points on serve in the fourth set before mounting a remarkable comeback to defeat World No. 1 Sinner and successfully defend his title at the clay-court major.

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Nitto ATP Finals Highlights
After missing out on the 2022 Nitto ATP Finals with an abdominal injury, Alcaraz made his Turin debut in 2023. With straight-sets wins against Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, the Spaniard finished top of his group to set up a semi-final showdown with Novak Djokovic. The Serbian hit top gear in the knockout rounds to beat Alcaraz en route to his record-breaking seventh Nitto ATP Finals title, improving to 3-2 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head against Alcaraz in the process. Alcaraz returned to Turin the following year, but struggled with stomach and respiratory issues, wearing a nasal strip in his final two group-stage matches and leaving with a 1-2 record.

ATP Masters 1000 Highlights
Alcaraz's rapid rise to superstardom accelerated with his eye-popping results at the ATP Masters 1000 events in early 2022. After a semi-final run in Indian Wells that culminated in a three-set defeat to fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal, Alcaraz won what was then the biggest title of his career in Miami with the loss of just one set. Alcaraz backed that up by winning the title on home soil in Madrid, where he became the first player to defeat Nadal and Djokovic at the same clay-court event, before dismissing Alexander Zverev in the final. He won consecutive Indian Wells trophies in 2023-24, beating Daniil Medvedev in both finals, but fell short of a three-peat to Jack Draper in the semi-finals in 2025. However, the Spaniard responded with a stunning mid-season stretch, winning his maiden titles in Monte-Carlo, Rome and Cincinnati to extend his ATP Masters 1000 winning streak to 17 matches. He defeated Sinner straight sets in the Rome final and once again ousted his rival in Cincinnati, where the Italian was forced to retire during the first set of their championship match.

Biggest Rivalries
Alcaraz and Sinner have set themselves apart from the rest of the Tour in recent years, winning seven consecutive major titles between them from the 2024 Australian Open onwards, which is the fourth-longest Grand Slam duopoly in the Open Era. Their absorbing Lexus ATP Head2Head rivalry was knotted at 4-4 by Alcaraz's win in the 2024 Indian Wells semi-finals, but the Spaniard has since stormed to a 9-5 lead. The first major final they contested at Roland Garros in 2025 is certainly the most epic of their early meetings, but the shotmaking in each of the pair's meetings makes each one a must-watch. For many, Sinner and Alcaraz’s rivalry is defined by the contrast between the former’s consistent all-around elite displays, featuring precise serving and cleanly struck groundstrokes, and the latter’s sublime athleticism and ability to string together unstoppable hot streaks when the stakes are at their greatest.

Alcaraz had also made a habit of meeting Djokovic on the game's biggest stages, with each player winning a final-set tie-break against the other: Alcaraz in their first meeting in Madrid in 2022, Djokovic in the thrilling 2023 Cincinnati final. Each of the pair's first eight Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings came at either an ATP Masters 1000, a Grand Slam, the Nitto ATP Finals or the Olympics, including their latest meeting in the gold-medal match in Paris in 2024, which Djokovic won in two tense tie-breaks. Alcaraz trails 3-5 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series against Djokovic, but defeated the Serbian in both the 2023 and 2024 Wimbledon finals.

Alcaraz and Sinner at Indian Wells in 2024. Photo by Pete Staples/ATP Tour.

Legacy
Still in his early 20s, Alcaraz has already built a strong legacy thanks to his early success and the unbridled joy with which he plays. The Spaniard often talks about his desire to put on a show for the crowd, with celebrities often flocking to his matches to witness his unique brand of tennis in person. While fans and media members alike were quick to compare him to fellow Spaniard Nadal early in his career, Alcaraz is writing his own story with each passing victory. His rivalry with Sinner has already transcended tennis, becoming a narrative that resonates across the broader world of sport. While Sinner completed over a full straight year as World No. 1 from June 2024, Alcaraz won five consecutive meetings against the Italian between 2024 and 2025, which adds another layer of intrigue to their pulsating duel.

Memorable Moment
Though he has climbed much higher since, the sparkling stretch from Alcaraz's title run at the 2021 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF through his Madrid trophy triumph in 2022 established him among the ATP Tour's elite, with the Spaniard rising from outside the Top 30 up to World No. 6 across four months to start the 2022 season. That period included titles in Rio de Janeiro, Miami, Barcelona and Madrid. In the Spanish capital, he beat Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic on consecutive days to send the hype surrounding his game into overdrive.

Sinner on Alcaraz
“We try to push ourselves and each other to the limits. He for me is a [reference] point of where I work,” Sinner said after losing to Alcaraz in the Beijing final in 2024. “I feel like also the fans, they like it. Usually the matches are quite long, they're physical, there are many turning points… It’s always nice. I feel privileged and honoured to share the court with him.”

Nadal on Alcaraz
"It's a good thing that as a player I will not face him many times," Nadal said in March 2024, "As a fan, I will enjoy watching him for many years hopefully. In Spain, we should be very, very happy about having someone like Carlos coming. He's an amazing player. He's only 20 years old and he's already won two Grand Slams."

Alcaraz on Alcaraz
"I'm winning all the time because I am smiling," Alcaraz said at Roland Garros in 2023. "And I always said that smiling for me is the key of everything."