The present generation. For the past two years, the entire tennis world has been talking about Carlos Alquers as the next thing in world tennis, and tonight (between Sunday and Monday) the 19-year-old Spaniard put his first stamp on the field of the greatest when he won 4:6, 6:2, 6:7, 3: 6 Casper Rudd, won the US Open and became the youngest player in history to rise to number one in the world.
The young tennis player managed to win the first Grand Slam title in his career against a bustling “Arthur Ash” stadium and a tough Norwegian opponent, who was also trying to win his first Grand Slam title and secure the first place in the world. As in the two previous meetings between the two, the Spaniard came out with the upper hand.
Alkers started the match strongly and after a break in the third game continued all the way to win the first set. The Spaniard lost the second set after being broken twice, and he managed to take the third set despite his opponent’s two set points with a huge 1:7 in the tiebreaker. In the fourth set, a break in the sixth game did the job on the way to the title.
The Spaniard also became the youngest (at 19 years and 126 days) to win a Grand Slam title since 2005, when Rafael Nadal did it at Roland Garros at just 19 years and three days. As far as the US Open is concerned, Alquers is the youngest to win the title since 1990, when Pete Sampras did it at just 19 years and 29 days.
Alquers’ road to the championship final was particularly long – in the round of 16 he met Marin Cilic, who took him to a five-set match. In the quarterfinals, he managed to beat his opponent Yannick Siner, who also took him to the fifth set. Even in the semi-finals, he was dragged into a long match of five sets against Frances Tiafou, who even lost a match point. The tough road he went through makes the win even more impressive as he set a record to become the player who played the longest cumulative time in a single Grand Slam tournament when he clocked 23 hours and 21 minutes.
His first Grand Slam win came a year after he recorded his record feat on the court of the majors when he reached the quarterfinals of the US Championship. This year he also managed to reach the quarterfinals at Roland Garros and in the current tournament, as mentioned, he managed to climb three more stages on the way to the big win.
This title joins two Masters 1000 titles achieved this year by Elcars. One of them came against the same Rod in the Miami Championship, after beating him in two sets. In addition, he also won the Madrid tournament after defeating the German Alexander Zverev in two sets. Now, having won the last Grand Slam title of the year, the Spaniard will try to continue his good form in the remaining tournaments with the goal of arriving next year as prepared as possible to continue building his name.
