Tennis legend Chris Evert believes Carlos Alcaraz, an 18-year-old Spaniard, has the potential to win “double-digit” Grand Slams.
Carlos Alcaraz created Miami Open history by becoming the tournament’s youngest winner, defeating sixth seed Casper Ruud in the final 7-5 6-4. He is also the third-youngest Masters 1000 champion in history, having won the tournament in one hour and 52 minutes and living up to his billing as one of the tour’s most intriguing young players.
Only two men have won titles at this level at a younger age: Michael Chang, who won Toronto in 1990 at the age of 18 years and five months, and Rafael Nadal, who won Monte Carlo in 2005 at the age of 18 years and ten months. Alcaraz only dropped one set en route to his Miami title and will now compete on his favoured surface of the clay, encouraged by his best success to date.
“There’s just nothing preventing him in my eyes”- Chris Evert
In an interview with Eurosport, the 18-time Grand Slam champion Unveiled that, “He’s got the whole package and I know I’m just sounding like everyone else when I say he’s going to win multiple Grand Slams, but he could be in the double digits in Grand Slams and become No. 1. There’s just nothing preventing him in my eyes.”
Alcaraz’s strength, along with the finer points of his game, distinguishes him as a player capable of competing at the highest level of the sport, according to Evert. “It’s just interesting with how physical tennis is now – especially in the men’s game that a teenager – I mean, would we ever expect to see an 18-year-old with the physicality and the tools this advanced in the men’s game?”
Also, Chris Evert backed the 18-year-old to fulfil his own expectations to win a Grand Slam sooner rather than later. “I think having that inner confidence and inner belief in yourself is the quality of a champion and it’s nothing but a good thing; because if he didn’t have that, he might have doubts in his mind that would prevent him from winning a Grand Slam. All the great champions that had longevity – like [Roger] Federer, [Rafael] Nadal, Martina Navratilova, and Steffi Graf – have that belief and I think it’s innate and I would not expect anything less. I think that’s one of the intangibles of a champion. We all see the tangible things like the power and the control and the stroke production.”
As per Evert, Alcaraz – who holds an 18-2 win-loss record this season ahead of the clay swing – has sent a message to his peers with statements of intent on and off the court: “And by believing in himself and saying it outright, he has sent out a message to other players: ‘I feel like I belong here and I’m going to achieve many things and you’re not going to stop me.’”
Carlos Alcaraz becomes the youngest men’s singles champion in Miami Open
It makes the Spaniard, who is just a month away from his 19th birthday was the second-youngest finalist, behind Rafael Nadal in 2005, who was about a month younger than Alcaraz is now, although Nadal lost to Roger Federer in the championship match. Also, the young Spaniard became the youngest champion in Miami Open history — Novak Djokovic was 19 when he won the tournament, then the NASDAQ-100 Open, for the first time — and picked up $1,231,245 US for the victory, nearly doubling his career earnings with one check.
Nevertheless, as a result of his victory in Miami, Alcaraz will now be ranked No. 11 in the world, just outside the top ten. He set a target of breaking the world’s top 15 by the end of the year for the 2022 season, but he has already surpassed it just four months in.
