The job is done - he wrote Carlos Alcaraz on camera after conquering Australia for the first time and completing a career grand slam. The truth is different, though. The guy who is only 22 years old is far from finished with the job, or rather has only just begun to write history.
The maestro from Murcia first appeared at Grand Slam tournaments in 2020, and very quickly, at the age of 19, he won one of them for the first time - it was the US Open in 2022. Since then, he has practically not stopped - he played in eight Grand Slam finals, winning seven of them, and by winning Melbourne over the tennis king of this city Novak Djokovic became immortal.
- Allcaraz - was the cover of the Spanish “Marca” and is a play on words with “All” (all) which alludes to the fact that Alcaras has now won all the Grand Slams.
Of course, he is the youngest tennis player to have managed to complete a career Grand Slam, and to compare the feat, it is perhaps best to compare him to the greatest of all time. Today, with 24 Grand Slam titles, Djokovic is the most successful in history, and at the time he was 22, he could only boast one trophy from the four biggest tournaments.
"Alcaraz has it all, and that's best seen in the fact that he's won each of the four Grand Slams on three different surfaces. Who knows how many more he'll win, but I can imagine him winning a lot more than he has at the moment," he said. Pet Cash, the 1987 Wimbledon champion, for the BBC.
Already like Wilander and McEnroe, how far is 24?
The number of Grand Slams he has won already places him among legends such as, for example, Mats Vilander or John McInroe, while the next Grand Slam would equal him with, among others, Andre Agassiem, Jimmy Connors i Ivan Lendlom...
After that, there would only be eight more tennis icons ahead of him on the eternal list - Bill Tilden (10) Bjorn Borg, Rod Laver (11) Roy Emerson (12) Pete Sampras (14) Roger Federer (20) Rafael Nadal (22) and Djokovic (24).
- Novak's record is simply incredible, but we also have to face the fact that most Grand Slams for at least the next three years will be down to two players. If Alcaraz has the advantage over Janika Siner - and he currently has a slight edge over him in Grand Slam finals - it can be assumed that out of the next 12 to 16 Grand Slam titles, he will win about eight - says Cash.
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Alcaraz played in seven Grand Slam finals, winning seven - against Ruud (US Open 2022), Djokovic (Wimbledon 2023 and 2024, Australian Open 2026), Zverev (Roland Garros 2024) and Siner (Roland Garros 2025, US Open 2025). He was only defeated by Siner last year at Wimbledon
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Alcaraz was 272 years old when he completed a career Grand Slam, making him the youngest player ever to achieve it. He is followed by Laver and Nadal (24 years old), Federer (27), Djokovic and Agassi (29).
For Karlitos, health will be the most important thing.
"That's right, he's running around the court and it's possible that he's putting a little more strain on his body than some other players. Winning 24 Grand Slam titles is still a long way off, but he's definitely moving in the right direction," Cash added.
Carlitos and Siner remain the only champions from 2023.
When Novak Djokovic triumphed at Daniil Medvedev in the US Open final, capped off an unreal 2023 during which he won three of the year's four Grand Slams, there were hardly any who would have predicted that after that the four biggest tournaments would always have only two champions.
Since then, nine Grand Slams have been played, and only Alcaraz and Sinner have won them - the Spaniard five times, the Italian four.
This year, Carlos's challenge could be a calendar Grand Slam, or more precisely, a triumph at each of the four major tournaments in the same year. The fact that only two people in history have managed to do so is testament to how difficult this is. Don Budge in 1938 and Laver in 1962 and 1969.
- It will be a big challenge, but I want to take it one tournament at a time - the next one is Roland Garros - said Alcaraz, a tournament he has won in Paris over the past two years.
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