Spanish teenage sensation Carlos Alcaraz has broken new territory in his career by becoming the youngest male player to win a Grand Slam match in seven years at the Australian Open.
The 17-year-old qualifier dismissed Botic Van de Zandschulp 6-1, 6-4, 6-4, Melbourne Park on Tuesday in what was his first ever Grand Slam main draw match. In fact, it was the first time he has played a best-of-five set match. Despite his lack of experience, the world No.141 produced 26 winners and broke five times en route to the victory. To put Alcaraz’s achievement into perspective, he has only ever played in three ATP Tour tournaments prior to the Australian Open.
“I’m very happy about this win today in my first Grand Slam. I tried to enjoy and to play my game. I think I did it,” he said.
“Before the match in the warm up I was nervous. I played the first game and second game not very relaxed, but then I played very good. I felt really, really good.”
Alcaraz has been billed as one of the stars of the future and is the youngest player currently ranked in the world’s top 150. Last year he achieved a series of milestones including winning a trio of Challenger titles. Becoming the second-youngest player in history to do so after Richard Gasquet. It was also during the same season where he became the youngest player to win an ATP 500 match since the series began in 2009.
The rise of the Spaniard has been hailed by his idol Rafael Nadal who also started his Australian Open campaign on Tuesday with a straight sets win. The two were seen hitting together on the practice court’s a couple days before the start of the Grand Slam.
“He has everything to improve in the future with his age. He already is where he is, and he has a lot of great things in his game. I really believe that he will have a great future because he’s a good guy, humble and a hard worker,” said Nadal.
Coached by 2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, Alcaraz is already being compared with 20-time Grand Slam winner Nadal. Although he is trying to ignore the high expectations being placed on his shoulder by some.
“I try to focus on me, not on the social media,” he said. “To play my game, play in front of my team and my family.
Last week Alcaraz illustrated how much of a threat he can be to the world’s top players when he comprehensively defeated world No.15 David Goffin in what was his first win over a top 15 player. After that match, Goffin said ‘he just killed me, so I would say he’s good.’
Alcaraz, who is the youngest player to win an Australian Open match since Thanasi Kokkinakis in 2014, will play Sweden’s Mikael Ymer in the second round.