Carlos Alcaraz. picture alliance

Carlos Alcaraz second fastest in history to most recent milestone

By Sai Mohan | Last updated Sep 29, 2024 2:33 PM ET

At age 21, Carlos Alcaraz already has more major titles than every player not named Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the last 25 years.

On Sunday, the Spaniard reached another milestone to cement his name among the sport's greatest.

Alcaraz demolished the Netherlands' Tallon Griekspoor 6-1, 6-2 in under 56 minutes to coast to the quarterfinals of the China Open in Beijing. As a result, he became the second fastest to reach 200 wins among all World No. 1s in ATP Tour history, trailing only American legend John McEnroe.

Sealed in style

The moment @carlosalcaraz recorded his 200th tour-level win of his career.@ChinaOpen | #ChinaOpen pic.twitter.com/NzZNJneAXh
— ATP Tour (@atptour) September 29, 2024

Per the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, Alcaraz's career record of 200-52 is bested only by McEnroe's 200-45 when the latter reached his 200th win on the Tour.

Carlos Alcaraz is the second quickest player ever to get 200 tour level wins.

“It’s pretty good but I’m already looking forward to the 300th” pic.twitter.com/VTUhtiaOQw
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) September 29, 2024

For context, Nadal went 200-55, Djokovic 200-74 and Federer 200-102 at the same junctures of their career. While Nadal's blistering start made him the third-fastest World No. 1 to 200 wins, Mats Wilander (200-56) and Jimmy Connors (200-58) round off the top five.

Incidentally, Alcaraz's 100th win came against the same opponent, Griekspoor, during the second round of the 2023 Indian Wells. Stunningly, the Spaniard notched up his next 100 wins on the Tour within 18 months after going 65-12 in 2023 en route to six titles. In 2024, his record stood at 45-9 as of Sunday.

The first teenager in history to reach World No. 1 in 2022, Alcaraz lost the top spot to Novak Djokovic last year and ultimately to Jannik Sinner in early 2024. He dropped to World No. 3 after his upset second-round loss to Botic van de Zandschulp at Flushing Meadows last month.

The Spaniard will face Russia's Karen Khachanov in the quarterfinal of the China Open on Monday.

Sai Mohan

A veteran sportswriter based in Portugal, Sai covers the NBA for Yardbarker and a few local news outlets. He had the honor of covering sporting events across four different continents as a newspaper reporter. Some of his all-time favorite athletes include Mike Tyson, Larry Bird, Luís Figo, Ayrton Senna and Steffi Graf.

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