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Spaniard is sixth-youngest player in Open Era to achieve the feat
Carlos Alcaraz made history on Sunday when he captured the Mutua Madrid Open title. The Spaniard became the sixth-youngest player to reach 10 tour-level titles in the Open Era.

The 20-year-old, whose birthday was Friday, was only beaten to the mark by five 19-year-olds: Mats Wilander, Bjorn Borg, Rafael Nadal, Boris Becker and Andre Agassi.

Quickest To 10 Tour-Level Titles (Open Era)

Player Age
1) Mats Wilander 19
2) Bjorn Borg

19
3) Rafael Nadal 19
4) Boris Becker 19
5) Andre Agassi 19
6) Carlos Alcaraz 20
Alcaraz was also champion at the 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals, which does not count towards players’ tour-level trophy collection.

Seven of his crowns have come on clay and three on hard courts. The Spaniard has earned 10 of his trophies at ATP Masters 1000 events.

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At only 20, he is among active leaders in Masters 1000 titles. According to Infosys ATP Stats, Novak Djokovic (38), Nadal (36), Andy Murray (14), Alexander Zverev (5) and Daniil Medvedev (5) are the only active players ahead of him. Alcaraz's 77.6 winning percentage at Masters 1000 only trails Nadal (82.2%) and Djokovic (82%) among active players.

Alcaraz will now turn his attention to another Masters 1000 event, the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, where he will try to claim his fifth title of the season. It will be the 20-year-old’s tournament debut.

“It's going to be my first time playing Rome. I really want to play there. I missed [it] last year, so this is a tournament that I looking for since I was kid,” Alcaraz said. “I don't know how it's going to be, Rome. I don't know the feelings over there, but for sure I'm going to enjoy that tournament.

“Of course it's [going to be] great to play in front of the Italian crowd again.”

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Brain Game analyses the Madrid final between Alcaraz and Struff
Take time away to prepare. Relentlessly come forward to pressure. Get under your opponent’s skin.

Carlos Alcaraz survived a blistering attack from Jan-Lennard Stuff to win the Mutua Madrid Open final 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 on Sunday with something resembling his B or C-level game. It certainly wasn’t his A game, as Struff swarmed the net and mentally rattled the 20-year-old’s cage. But it’s a testament to the Spaniard’s mental toughness that he was made to feel so uncomfortable on the court and still found a way to be first over the finish line.

The match was very much dictated by Struff, who came to the net a staggering 52 times in three sets, winning 33 points up front (63 per cent). That was vastly superior to the German’s win percentage at the back of the court, which ended up at just 43 per cent (32/75).

Struff’s harrowing forays forward created discomfort and despair at times for Alcaraz. Struff turned the Magic Box into a pressure cooker and was on a roll early in the third set, holding break point on Alcaraz’s serve at 1-1, Ad out. Alcaraz saved break point and won seven of the next nine points to break Struff and surge to a 3-1 lead in the deciding set. That sequence proved to be the most pivotal in the final.

Alcaraz Serve Direction
Alcaraz served primarily to Struff’s backhand return, making the German hit 70 per cent (58/83) backhand returns for the match. That was mainly due to Struff successfully crushing his forehand return at the start of the match. Struff’s initial seven forehand returns in Set One produced one return winner and forced four forehand Serve +1 errors from Alcaraz. Alcaraz cleverly moved the battle to the backhand return, where he extracted 10 return errors in Set 1, five in Set 2, and critically, 10 again in the Set 3.

Losing serve at 1-2 in the third flipped the momentum and gave Alcaraz a new lease of energy from the partisan crowd. Struff’s backhand return suffered, as he failed to put seven of his last eight backhand returns of the match in the court. In the third set, Struff hit only four forehand returns and 20 backhand returns. Alcaraz finally had a strategy he could sink his teeth into.

Return Location
In stark contrast, Alcaraz only made contact with three returns for the match within four metres of the baseline. He was typically six metres behind the baseline or more, trying to take big cuts at returns. Alcaraz didn’t make contact with any returns inside the baseline.

Struff, on the other hand, made contact with all second-serve returns around two metres inside the baseline and only made contact with one first-serve return further back than one metre behind the baseline. Struff even made contact with 10+ first-serve returns inside the baseline.

Struff was playing a north-south match. Alcaraz was much more about trying to dip returns below the height of the net to force errors, and also pass on the next shot.

Alcaraz Passing Shots
In similar fashion to the serve targets, Alcaraz also directed his focus to Struff’s backhand volley when the German came forward. Overall, Struff hit 15 forehand volleys and 28 backhand volleys. Struff hit three forehand volley winners while only yielding two forehand volley errors. The backhand volley contributed eight winners but committed 10 errors.

With Struff serving at 1-2, 30/40, in the third set, he served and volleyed behind a first serve. He dug out a low forehand volley but found himself too close to the net with little reaction time against Alcaraz’s forehand down-the-line passing shot. Struff’s reflex backhand volley flew over the baseline and Alcaraz seized the momentum he needed to take the title.

We are used to witnessing Alcaraz produce such a high level in finals and play the match on his terms. In many ways, it is even more impressive to see him have to fight himself and struggle mightily against Struff to find a way to win.

In many ways, Alcaraz had to conquer himself first in order to conquer Struff.

Spaniard is fourth ATP Tour player to receive the award
Carlos Alcaraz won the Laureus Breakthrough of the Year Award, it was announced Monday evening at a ceremony in Paris.

Alcaraz is the fourth ATP Tour player to earn the honour after Marat Safin (2001), Rafael Nadal (2006) and Andy Murray (2013). It is the second consecutive year a tennis player has won the award after Emma Raducanu did so in 2022.


Last year was a historic one for Alcaraz, who captured his first two ATP Masters 1000 titles in Miami and Madrid, lifted his maiden major trophy at the US Open and became the youngest World No. 1 in the history of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings (since 1973). The Spaniard capped it off by becoming the youngest year-end ATP No. 1 presented by Pepperstone.

Other nominees for the award were fellow tennis player Elena Rybakina, the Morocco men’s football team, figure skater Nathan Chen and track and field star Tobi Amusan.

Other tennis players who were nominated for an award were Rafael Nadal (World Sportsman of the Year), Iga Swiatek (World Sportswoman of the Year) and Diede de Groot (World Sportsperson of the Year).