Vamos! 20 amazing things Carlos Alcaraz achieved by winning Wimbledon

With his 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 victory over Novak Djokovic in a four-hour, 43-minute, thriller of a final at Wimbledon, 20-year-old Carlos Alcaraz achieved a lot of amazing things—here are 20 of them:

He became the first man other than the Big 4 to win Wimbledon since 2002. Lleyton Hewitt won it that year—Alcaraz wasn’t even born yet. After that, the Big 4 swept every title from 2003 to 2022.

He’s the third-youngest man to win Wimbledon in the Open Era. Boris Becker won it when he was 17 (1985) and 18 (1986), and Bjorn Borg won it as a younger 20-year-old than Alcaraz (1976).

He’s the third Spanish man ever to win Wimbledon. The first two were Manolo Santana (1966) and Rafael Nadal (2008 and 2010).

He’s the fourth Spanish man ever to win multiple majors. The first three were Santana (4), Sergi Bruguera (2) and Nadal (22).

He’s now 2-0 in his career in Grand Slam finals. And 12-3 in his career in tour-level finals.

He’s now won more tour-level titles (6) and matches (47) than any other man this year. He had been tied with Daniil Medvedev in both categories going into the final against Djokovic.

He kept No. 1 by winning the final. The winner of the final on Sunday would be No. 1 on Monday, and in this case Alcaraz came out on top. This is his 29th career week at the top spot.

And now a few things Alcaraz achieved by defating the (nearly) undefeatable Djokovic:

He became the first player to beat Djokovic on Centre Court in over 10 years. Going into the final, Djokovic had won an all-time record 45 matches in a row on Centre Court, his last loss coming to Andy Murray in the final on July 7th, 2013—3,661 days earlier. Alcaraz was 10.

He ended Djokovic’s 27-match winning streak at majors. Djokovic went 21-0 to win the last three majors he’d played (Wimbledon, Australian Open, Roland Garros) and 6-0 to get to the final here.

He ended Djokovic’s 34-match winning streak at Wimbledon. Djokovic hadn’t lost a match at the grass-court major since retiring against Tomas Berdych in the 2017 quarterfinals with an elbow injury.

He put an end to Djokovic’s tie-break winning streak at majors—he had won his last 15 in a row. Since dropping the second set of his 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-0 second-round victory over Enzo Couacaud at the Australian Open this year, Djokovic had won 15 breakers in a row at majors, which was actually the second-longest tie-break winning streak at majors for a man in the Open Era.

He became the first player born in the 2000s to defeat Djokovic at a major. He’s actually the first player born after 1996 to do it—until Alcaraz, the latest-born players to do it were both born in 1996 (Chung Hyeon at the 2018 Australian Open and Medvedev at the 2021 US Open).

He became the first player to win two or fewer games in the first set against Djokovic in a major final but come back to win that final. Only two other players had come back from a set down to beat him in a major final—Nadal at 2014 Roland Garros (3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4) and Stan Wawrinka at 2015 Roland Garros (4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4) and the 2016 US Open (6-7 (1), 6-4, 7-5, 6-3). None of those were first-set blow-outs.

He was only the second player to come back from a set down to beat Djokovic at Wimbledon, period. Djokovic had been 78-1 at the grass-court major after winning the first set going into the final, the only loss coming to Nadal in the 2007 semifinals, 3-6, 6-1, 4-1, retired (toe blister).

And here’s a few more for the road:

His wins over Holger Rune, Medvedev and Djokovic in the last three rounds were the 18th, 19th and 20th Top 10 wins of his career. He’s now 20-10 in his career against Top 10 players.

He was actually the first man to beat three Top 10 players en route to the Wimbledon title since 1994. Pete Sampras did it that year, defeating Michael Chang, Todd Martin and Goran Ivanisevic in the last three rounds.

He’s now beaten every Top 20 ranking—at just 20 years old. With his win over the No. 2-ranked Djokovic he’s completed his set, having already beaten a No. 1, No. 3, No. 4, No. 5, No. 6, No. 7, No. 8, No. 9, No. 10, No.11, No. 12, No. 13, No. 14, No. 15, No. 16, No. 17, No. 18, No. 19 and No. 20.

He’s now 9-1 in his career in five-setters. His only loss came to Matteo Berrettini in the third round of the 2022 Australian Open, 6-2, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 2-6, 7-6 (5). He’s won his last six in a row since.

He’s already knocking on the door of the $20 Million Club. He earned 2.3 million pounds for his victory, pushing his career prize money from $16,660,732 to $19,644,057... at just 20 years old.

And finally, he became the first player to qualify for the ATP Finals. He’ll make his debut at the year-end event this year—he qualified last year but had to withdraw due to an abdominal injury.