Carlos Alcaraz has achieved many ‘youngest to’ milestones so far in his career, but he doesn’t think it matters too much.
Being the youngest ever to do something is certainly a great achievement, and as expected, Alcaraz is happy to have done some of the things he’s done in his very young tennis career so far.
It’s great to be remembered as the youngest man ever to be number one on the ATP Tour. It’s also great to be remembered as one of the players who have won four Grand Slams before turning 22.
All of that is great, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter that much. Novak Djokovic is not considered the greatest of all time because he’s the youngest to have done something in tennis.
It’s the totality of his resume, having won 24 Grand Slams, that matters. As a player who admitted to wanting to become the best in history, Alcaraz is looking at that kind of achievements, so overall, he’s more focused on the future—improving as a player and winning as much as possible. He cares about the totality of his legacy when he retires, as he admitted after winning the 2024 Wimbledon Championships.
“Obviously, I’ve seen and I heard all the stats. That I’m the youngest to win Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same year.. to win whatever. I try not to think about it too much. It’s a really great start of my career. I have to keep going. I have to keep building my path. At the end of my career, I want to sit at the same table as the big guys.”
“That’s my main goal. That’s my dream right now. It doesn’t matter that I already won 4 Grand Slams at 21. If I don’t keep going in these tournaments, for me it doesn’t matter. I really want to keep going. I’ll try to keep winning and end my career with a lot of them.”
So far he’s made a great start having won four majors at 21, but to achieve what he’s aiming to achieve, he’ll need more. The Big Three set the bar very high, winning 20, 22, and 24 majors, something the young Spaniard aspires to do as well.
