Carlos Alcaraz has been talked about for a while as a potential future tennis superstar. The 19-year-old has been living up to most of those expectations for a while now and his maiden Grand Slam title win at the US Open now becomes a watershed moment of course in his young career which has already seen quite a few big highlights.
Incredibly, Alcaraz, who turned professional in 2018 finds himself as the new World Number 1 in men’s singles tennis. Wimbledon this year remember did not offer any ranking points, after Russian and Belarussian players were banned from participating due to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

As the tennis world celebrates the 19 year old, TimesofIndia.com takes a look here at some big Alcaraz rankings and other trivia that tells the story of how the Spaniard, who idolises Rafael Nadal, climbed from outside the Top 50 in the world last year to the very top of the rankings charts:
1. Alcaraz’s 4 set win vs Casper Ruud in the US Open men’s singles final was his 51st tour level win of the season – the most by any player this season. He is 5 wins clear of Stefanos Tsitsipas (46 wins).
2. Alcaraz won three straight 5 set matches (vs Marin Cilic, Jannik Sinner and Frances Tiafoe) to reach his maiden Grand Slam final. He spent as much as 20 hours an 19 minutes on court enroute to the final.

3. Overall, Alcaraz spent 23 hours and 39 minutes on court at the US Open, going past Kevin Anderson at Wimbledon 2018 for most time spent on court in a single Grand Slam on record (since 1999).
4. Alcaraz is now the youngest Grand Slam champion since his compatriot Rafael Nadal won the 2005 French Open, also as a 19 year old. Alcaraz is also the youngest US Open champion since Pete Sampras (19) in 1990.

5. Alcaraz is also now the youngest ever (19 years and 4 months) to become the Men’s singles World Number 1. He has broken the previous record held by Leyton Hewitt (20 years and 9 months in November, 2001). Alcaraz is the first teenage World Number 1.
6. Alcaraz is just the fourth Spaniard to be ranked Men’s World number 1, after Juan Carlos Ferrero, Carlos Moya and Rafael Nadal.
7. Incredibly, Alcaraz was ranked World number 55 at the 2021 US Open, last year.

8. Alcaraz began the 2022 US Open, this year, ranked 4th in the world.
9. Alcaraz has tied the record for the biggest leap to Number 1 in ATP rankings history. He is only the fourth player to go from World Number 4 to World Number 1 in the space of one ATP Rankings update (one tournament). Alcaraz joins Carlos Moya (March 1999), Andre Agassi (July 1999) and Pete Sampras (September 2000) on this list.

10. Alcaraz is the first player since Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon 2019 to save a match point enroute to a Grand Slam title. Alcaraz saved a match point against Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals. Djokovic had saved two match points against Roger Federer in the final of Wimbledon 2019.
11. Alcaraz now has a Tour-leading 5 titles this season. Before the US Open title he also won ATP Masters 1000 titles at Miami and Madrid.
* Stats Courtesy: ATP