After precisely 375 days, the ATP Top 10 is as soon as once more with out a teen as Carlos Alcaraz, World No.2, and Holger Rune, World No.7, each celebrated their twentieth birthdays within the final week.
Denmark’s Rune turned 20 on April 29 whereas Spain’s Alcaraz left his teen years behind on Friday.
READ – Mercurial ascension: The rise and rise of Carlos Alcaraz
In the final one-and-a-half yr, each Alcaraz and Rune have attracted an entire new set of followers to the tennis world with their recent and aggressive type of play. Their spectacular performances on the largest tournaments on Tour at such an early stage of their careers have inevitably drawn comparisons with the Big Three – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic – and the way they faired throughout the identical interval of their lives.
ATP Tour debut
Out of the Big Three, solely Nadal received on his ATP Tour debut when he took down Paraguay’s Ramon Delgado as a 15-year-old in Mallorca in 2002. Following in his compatriot’s footsteps, Alcaraz too made a successful begin to his Tour-level tennis however he needed to do it the exhausting method – beating the then Top 50 participant Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-6(2) in a 3 hours and 37 minutes lengthy contest in Barcelona. As it turned out, Alcaraz, in his ultimate match as a teen, received the title in Barcelona this yr.
First ATP Tour Title
While it took Nadal and Federer two and three finals respectively to raise their maiden titles on Tour, Djokovic did it in his very first try when he beat Chile’s Nicolas Massu 7-6(5), 6-4 within the summit conflict in Amersfoort, Netherlands in 2007. Alcaraz and Rune too received their maiden singles titles on the primary time of asking. In reality, Alcaraz went on to win his first 5 finals earlier than Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti defeated him within the summit conflict in Hamburg in July final yr.
Total titles earlier than turning 20
As unusual because it sounds now, Federer, who completed his profession with 103 singles titles, the second-most by anybody on the ATP Tour, solely had one earlier than turning 20. On the opposite hand, his two greatest rivals – Nadal and Djokovic – received 16 and 5. Alcaraz enters his 20s with 9 titles to his title whereas Rune has 4. However, out of the 5, Nadal (2005 French Open) and Alcaraz (2022 US Open) are the one ones who clinched a Major of their teenagers.
Source: sportstar.thehindu.com