Alcaraz, the 19-year-old Spanish sensation, beat Casper Ruud of Norway in four sets to capture his first Grand Slam championship and take the top spot in the ATP world rankings.
The future of tennis arrived at 7:38 p.m. Sunday with a rocketed serve off the racket of Carlos Alcaraz, who clinched the U.S. Open men’s singles championship, announcing the start of a new era in the game.
Alcaraz, the 19-year-old Spanish sensation, beat Casper Ruud of Norway, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (1), 6-3, to win his first Grand Slam singles title, but probably not his last. Far, far from it. A blasted serve that came off his racket like a missile sealed it. The Carlos Alcaraz era is here.
On Sunday, he reached the sport’s pinnacle in grand fashion on its biggest stage, packing the nearly 24,000 fans in the stadium onto his bandwagon as he claimed not only the men’s singles championship and $2.6 million in prize money, but also the No. 1 ranking in the world, becoming the youngest man to do so. He is the youngest man to win a Grand Slam title since Rafael Nadal won the 2005 French Open as a 19-year-old.
Alcaraz’s rise to the top of the sport had been predicted for years, but it has been breathtaking nonetheless. His forehand is powerful, and his ability to chase down balls that other players would not bother trying to reach is thrilling to watch. He can hit the lustiest of winners when he gets to them, and he takes pure joy from competing, even in the middle of the night. He has dazzled crowds everywhere he has played during his first two years as a full-fledged professional, never more so than during the past two weeks of this unforgettable championship run.
The ride began in 2021 in Australia, where he won his first main draw Grand Slam match on a court in the hinterlands of Melbourne Park with just a few dozen fans in attendance. He was outside the top 100 of the rankings then. In Croatia, last summer, he won his first tour-level title, and in New York starting a month later he blasted and drop-shotted his way into the quarterfinals as part of a teenage wave that took over the U.S. Open.
This spring brought his first titles at the Masters level, just below the Grand Slams, in Miami Gardens, Fla., and Madrid, where he beat Nadal and Novak Djokovic in consecutive matches. Veterans playing him — and often losing — for the first time left the court shaking their heads, their eyes glazed, and at a loss for words about what they had experienced.
“This is something I have dreamed of since I was a kid,” Alcaraz, not so far removed from youth, said during the trophy presentation, after he and Ruud acknowledged the solemnity of the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in their moments of tennis heartbreak and triumph.
The tournament set an all-time attendance record of 776,120 for the past two weeks, surpassing the previous record of 737,872, set in 2019.
The tournament set an all-time attendance record of 776,120 for the past two weeks, surpassing the previous record of 737,872, set in 2019.
Credit...Karsten Moran for The New York Times
On Sunday, there was Alcaraz, doing the usual Alcaraz things. He sprinted from one corner of the court to the other, from the back wall to the edge of the net, whipping and spinning balls, and tantalizing and wowing a crowd sprinkled with the usual cast of celebrities befitting the final round. Years from now, the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Anna Wintour, Questlove and Christie Brinkley can tell friends they were there when the teenager won his first Grand Slam title.
The championship came at the end of an epic week for Alcaraz. Just to get to the final, he played three straight five-set matches, starting Monday, that had him on the court for some 15 hours. His quarterfinal victory over Jannik Sinner, during which he was one point from elimination, lasted until 2:50 a.m. on Thursday, the latest finish in the history of a tournament notorious for late endings. Two nights later, or rather, the next night, he outlasted Tiafoe in emotional, battle-filled, lung-busting rallies in a match with miraculous point-saving shots to the end.
Alcaraz, though, said his first chance at a Grand Slam final was no time to be tired, and he started causing problems for Ruud early. Determined not to get into another marathon slugfest against an opponent as steady and as fit as anyone else in the field, Alcaraz stepped on the gas pedal from the start, rushing the net at every good chance and ending points with crisp volleys hit on the sharpest angles. Given what had transpired recently, Ruud had every right to expect Alcaraz’s unique style of tennis attrition. Instead he got shock-and-awe.
Alcaraz grabbed the early edge in the third game. With Ruud serving, he eschewed any inclinations to ease his way into the match. With a chance to cause early damage, Alcaraz flicked on his afterburners and started grunting with late-match urgency and volume on every shot.