Carlos Alcaraz has been one of the best performers on the ATP Tour in the past two years, but that still didn’t mean he ruled long as the world no. 1.
When the young Spaniard won the 2022 US Open and became the youngest man ever to become the world no. 1, he seemed destined for many weeks at the world no. 1 spot, but his reign come to an end much sooner than expected.
Alcaraz’s first stint as the world no. 1 player lasted only 20 weeks, before he was stopped by Novak Djokovic. the young Spaniard then regained the top spot three more times, but ever single time, it was the Serbian legend who ended his reign.
Overall, since becoming the top-ranked player for the first time in 2022, Alcaraz held the world no. 1 spot for ‘only’ 36 weeks and that number will not increase anytime soon, even though he’s been one of the most consistent performers over the past two seasons.
One of the main reasons for this has been his injury-prone body, or at least injury-prone recently, because that’s the way his first stint as the world no. 1 ended as well, since he wasn’t able to compete at the 2023 Australian Open.
This year, he also missed plenty of tournaments, and that’s one of the reasons why he’s currently quite far from being the world no. 1 in the ATP Rankings. At the moment, it’s Jannik Sinner, his main young rival, and the Italian will keep that spot for some time.
At the upcoming Wimbledon Championships, Alcaraz will be the defending champion, which means that he can’t grow his points total. On top of that, if he loses early, or Alexander Zverev performs really well, the Spanish player can even drop to the world no. 4 spot.
However, even if he wins the title at SW19, and he would remain a reigning winner at two majors, that still wouldn’t be enough for him to lead the ATP Rankings, and it wouldn’t have to be enough to even be in the Top 2.
Paradoxically, Alcaraz could have four Grand Slams in less than two years and three in the span of the last 12 months, and it his world no. 1 reign would still amount only to 36 weeks.
Comparing this to for example WTA’s no. 1, Iga Swiatek, makes this stat seem almost unreasonable. The Polish player has won five majors overall, and four in the past two years, and she spent 108 weeks as the highest-ranked player on the WTA Tour.
Of course, the Pole won many WTA 1000 events as well, which helped her to keep the world no. 1 rank, but what’s important to note it the fact that her major-winning runs were almost limited only to the Roland Garros, as her only other Grand Slam came at the US Open in 2022.
That could show a limiting potential to earning points at majors, which isn’t the case with Alcaraz. The Spaniard became the youngest player to win a major on all three different surfaces, but being the world no. 1, that’s not the statistic that he broke many records in recently.
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