Razeen Gutta
Carlos Alcaraz, Spain’s 19-year-old teenage tennis sensation, rose to the top of the world tennis rankings as he won his first ever Grand Slam on Sunday.
Alcaraz defeated Norway’s Casper Ruud 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre in Queens, New York.
Alcaraz overtook Russia’s Daniil Medvedev at the top of the rankings and is now the youngest ever world number one, going one ahead of Lleyton Hewitt, who was 20 when he made the top spot more than two decades ago.
Alcaraz is also the world’s youngest men’s Grand Slam champion since Rafael Nadal won the French Open in 2005.
The final lasted three hours and twenty minutes and was filled with some extremely watchable rallies. Eventually, the fate of the championship and number one spot in the world was dependent on the tiebreak.
Ruud seemed to have it all under control with Alcaraz visibly tired, but some misses coupled with the backing of the fans helped the Spaniard over the line as he created history.
“It’s something I dreamt of since I was a kid. I worked really hard for it,” Alcaraz said post-match as the emotions came pouring out.
“There are a lot of emotions right now, it’s very special for me. My Mum and my grandfather are not here, I was thinking about them, a lot of my family couldn’t come here. I am a little bit tired, I always say it’s not time to be tired, you have to give everything on court, it’s something I work very hard on.”
Image source: @USOpen
