With a streaky 5-7, 6-1, 5-7, 6-2, 6-0 fourth-round victory over German qualifier Peter Gojowczyk on Sunday, 18-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz reached the first Grand Slam quarterfinal of his career, a breakthrough run that had already seen him take out No. 26 seed Cam Norrie and No. 3 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first week.
Alcaraz, who turned 18 in May, has now rewritten history, too—he’s the youngest man to reach the quarterfinals of the US Open in the Open Era.
He’s actually the youngest to get this far here since 1963, to be exact, when Brazilian Thomaz Koch, a younger 18, did it.
“I’m super excited,” he said after his win over Gojowczyk.
“It’s amazing for me. It’s a dream come true, no?”
Across all of the majors, Alcaraz is the youngest man to reach a quarterfinal since Michael Chang, who was a younger 18 when he got this far at Roland Garros in 1990.