Carlos Alcaraz leads Novak Djokovic, Pete Sampras and Rod Laver in crazy ATP Final stat

The World No. 2 defeated Daniil Medvedev in the 2024 Indian Wells Masters finals to win his 13th career title and fifth Masters-1000 title.

Carlos Alcaraz leads Novak Djokovic, Pete Sampras and Rod Laver in crazy ATP Final stat

L-R: Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic and Pete Sampras (Images via IMAGO)

World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz made a huge title defense at the 2024 Indian Wells Masters last week. Playing as the defending champ and the second seed was a tough path carved for him. To make things worse, he also had injured his ankle in his previous tournament, raising concerns about his fitness. However, the young Spaniard has come out of poor slumber and has achieved a remarkable stat in a matter of weeks.

Being a seed, Alcaraz started his campaign directly in the second round. With top seed Novak Djokovic crashing out in the third round, Alcaraz capitalized on the opportunity to win the Indian Wells title. The final was a repeat of last year’s title decider.

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Alcaraz took on Daniil Medvedev and went on to defeat the Russian yet again. The win over Medvedev earned the 20-year-old his 13th career title in what was his 17th career final. Of the 13 titles, Alcaraz has won five at the Masters-1000 level. It is the most for him at any tier so far in his short career.

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Accordingly, he has four titles at the ATP-500 level followed by two ATP-250 and two Grand Slam singles titles. With the win in Indian Wells, Alcaraz went past some of the big names in history to achieve an astonishing feat. The reigning Wimbledon champ now has the best win percentage in ATP finals.

He overtook Pete Sampras and Rod Laver, who were tied at the top spot. Both the greats had a win percentage of 72.72% in career finals. This year’s Indian Wells title takes Alcaraz past them, who now leads the charts with a record 76.47% success rate in the title decider.

24-time Grand Slam singles title winner Djokovic and Swede icon Bjorn Borg complete the Top-5 with a finals win record of 71.01% and 70.96%, respectively. Rafael Nadal narrowly misses out on a Top-5 spot with a winning percentage of 70.96%.

  • Carlos Alcaraz – 76.47%
  • Pete Sampras – 72.72%
  • Rod Laver – 72.72%
  • Novak Djokovic – 71.01%
  • Bjorn Borg – 70.96%

Carlos Alcaraz creates a new title defense record at Masters events

This year’s Indian Wells marked the third instance when Alcaraz was able to defend his title. Before this, he had made a successful title defense at the ATP-500 Barcelona Open in 2023. He followed it by defending the title at the Madrid Masters in 2023.

Carlos Alcaraz
Carlos Alcaraz (Image via IMAGO)

By repeating the feat in Tennis Paradise, the 20-year-old became the youngest man since 1990 to make multiple title defenses at the Masters level. No player aged under 21 had ever managed the feat before the current World No. 2.

Likewise, after Boris Becker in 1987-88, Alcaraz became the first under-21 player to defend the Indian Wells title. He also has now achieved the third-best success rate of 23.8% at the Masters event by winning his fifth Masters title from 21 events. Djokovic with 31.3% and Nadal with 28.1% are the only players ahead of him.

In all fairness, the sample size for Alcaraz as compared to the other greats is quite small. Nonetheless, the youngster has repeatedly shown he is destined for big things and continues to justify the tag of being the future of the sport.

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