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Carlos Alcaraz Wins U.S. Open Men’s Singles Title, and Becomes No. 1

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.

By Matthew Futterman

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.

The dream becomes reality. @carlosalcaraz is a Grand Slam champion. pic.twitter.com/sPFaAiVFNR — US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 11, 2022

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.

Alcaraz’s victory was the capstone of a tournament that will be recalled for years for many reasons. There was the farewell to Serena Williams , widely considered the greatest female player of the modern era; the rise of Frances Tiafoe , the 24-year-old American son of immigrants from Sierra Leone, who knocked out Nadal and pushed Alcaraz to the limits in an electric five-set semifinal; and on Saturday, Iga Swiatek of Poland staked her claim as the new queen of the game, winning her third Grand Slam title in less than two years.

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.

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.

“I’ve never played a player who moves as well,” said Tiafoe, who has played the best of the best. “He’s going to be a problem for a very long time.”

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.

After Alcaraz clinched that first service break, Ruud grabbed his towel near the corner of the court where his father and coach, the former pro Christian Ruud, sat a few feet above the court. Team Ruud needed a plan B.

It took another 10 games for Ruud to find it, but he did. Down a set, Ruud pressured Alcaraz by putting ball after ball at his feet, then put on an Alcaraz-like display of power and touch and covered the court to even the match after an hour and a half, as Alcaraz’s efficiency, and his lethal drop-shot, went missing temporarily.

This was a different Ruud than the one who took a drubbing from Nadal in his first Grand Slam final at the French Open three months ago, on a day when he looked like someone with really good seats for the match rather than an opponent. Ruud was not going away on his own Sunday.

But throughout the tournament, Alcaraz showed a rare ability to find the next gear to meet whatever challenge came his way. He put that on full display late in the third set, during a crucial, and for Ruud, soul-crushing stretch across a single game and a tiebreaker.

With Alcaraz serving to stay in the set, Ruud poured every bit of his power and determination into a series of rocketed forehands that earned him two chances to move a set ahead. Each time, Alcaraz pressed forward, fearlessly pushing into the court chin first. His chance for a lead gone, Ruud crumpled in the tiebreaker with a series of wild misses as Alcaraz reeled off seven consecutive points.

From there, holding back Alcaraz suddenly felt much like it has all year, a task akin to holding back an ocean. An absurd forehand, topspin lob while Alcaraz was running at full speed gave him the chance to get the crucial fourth-set service break. A point later, he did his best impression of a human backboard until Ruud could keep the ball in the court no longer.

“Hard to believe he’s only teenager, but, yeah, he is,” Ruud said later.

After the final point, a crushing service winner, Alcaraz collapsed on his back. A minute later he was embracing his longtime coach — the former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero — who has piloted the journey, along with Alcaraz’s father, a former pro himself, and his grandfather, who helped develop the tennis club where he started to play as a 3-year-old.

When he made it back to his chair, Alcaraz put his face in a towel and sobbed, as Ruud sat stoically a few feet away. Ruud knew what had hit him, and knew that it could be the first of many days that end like this one.

A little while later, Ferrero said Alcaraz had reached about 60 percent of his potential.

“I want to be on top for many weeks, many years,” Alcaraz said later in a news conference. Then he pointed at the trophy. “I want more of these.”

The era is just starting.

Matthew Futterman is a veteran sports journalist and the author of two books, “Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed” and “Players: How Sports Became a Business.” More about Matthew Futterman

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US Open 2021: Draws, dates, prize money and everything you need to know

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The 2021 US Open is set to be a fitting coda to an exciting and unpredictable Slam season. In a year that has already seen the majors produce 12 different semifinalists, it's another deep and dangerous field in New York. 

Here's what you need to know:

When does the tournament start?

First held in 1887, this is the 135th staging of the US Open women’s singles championship. The US Open takes place at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York. The tournament is played on outdoor hardcourts, with a roof available on Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium. Wilson US Open Regular Duty balls are used. 

Qualifying is underway this week, with singles main-draw play set to begin Monday, Aug. 30, starting with the bottom half of the draw. The top half will play on Tuesday. Doubles main draw is scheduled to get underway on Wednesday, Sept. 1. 

Singles quarterfinals will be played across Tuesday and Wednesday of the second week, with both women's semifinals as well as doubles semifinals, to be played Thursday, Sept. 9. 

When are the finals?

The singles final is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 11, at 4:00 p.m. ET. The mixed doubles final will take place earlier in the day.

The doubles final will be played the following day Sunday.

Who are the top seeds?

No.1 Ashleigh Barty No.2 Aryna Sabalenka No.3 Naomi Osaka No.4 Karolina Pliskova No.5 Elina Svitolina No.6.Bianca Andreescu No.7 Iga Swiatek No.8 Garbiñe Muguruza

For a full breakdown of the Top 32 seeds, click here . 

US Open Preview: Martina Navratilova on Barty's variety, Osaka's composure, and Gauff's potential

Who are the defending champions?

Last summer, No.3 Naomi Osaka followed up her run to the final of the Western & Southern Open to win her second US Open title and third major overall. After defeating Jennifer Brady in a hotly contested three-set battle of servers, Osaka came back from a set down to defeat Victoria Azarenka 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

In the doubles, Laura Siegemend and Vera Zvonareva defeated top seeds Elise Mertens and Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinals and went on to defeat Nicole Melichar and Xu Yifan 6-4, 6-4 in the final.

What does the draw look like?

Main draw #USOpen singles. pic.twitter.com/6W8kCDwBwo — WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) August 26, 2021

Before the draw was made, seven players withdrew from the tournament: Sofia Kenin, Serena Williams, Wang Qiang, Laura Siegemund, Patricia Maria Tig, Kirsten Flipkens, and Venus Williams.

Main draw wildcards were given to Hailey Baptiste, Ashlyn Krueger, Caty McNally, Emma Navarro, Alycia Parks, CoCo Vandeweghe and Katie Volynets. Storm Sanders received a reciprocal wild card in agreement with Tennis Australia.

Qualifying Round-up: Raducanu, Konjuh book main draw slots

There are 11 teenagers in the draw: Coco Gauff (17), Ashlyn Krueger (17), Clara Tauson (18), Emma Raducanu (18), Leylah Fernandez (18), Marta Kostyuk (19), Maria Camila Osorio Serrano (19), Amanda Anisimova (19, will turn 20 on August 31), Hailey Baptiste (19), Caty McNally (19) and Katie Volynets (19).

Much of the top-line pre-draw intrigue concerned whether defending champion Osaka, seeded No.3, would fall in Barty's half or Sabalenka's. When the draw was revealed Thursday, Osaka was in the bottom half, in a section that includes 2016 champion Angelique Kerber, Coco Gauff, Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys.

READ: Is No.1 Barty the favorite at this year's US Open?  

On the whole, the well-balanced draw is set up for a blockbuster first week of play, as a slew of intriguing matchups, could play out over the first three rounds. 

For a full quarter-by-quarter breakdown of the draw, click here . 

Projected R16 by seed: [1] Barty vs. [13] Brady [11] Bencic vs. [7] Swiatek [4] Pliskova vs. [14] Pavlyuchenkova [10] Kvitova vs. [6] Andreescu — [5] Svitolina vs. [12] Halep [16] Kerber vs. [3] Osaka [8] Krejcikova vs. [9] Muguruza [15] Mertens vs. [2] Sabalenka #USOpen — WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) August 26, 2021

What is the prize money and ranking points on offer?

The US Open will offer $57.5 million in total player compensation in 2021. Prize money was increased for each competition within the US Open including the singles, doubles, mixed doubles and wheelchair competitions.

Singles prize money and points:

Champion: $2,500,000/2,000 points Runner-up: $1,250,000/1,300 points Semifinalist: $675,000/780 points Quarterfinalist: $425,000/430 points Round of 16: $265,000/240 points  Round of 32: $180,000/130 points Round of 64: $115,000/70 points Round of 128: $75,000/ 10 points

READ: Introducing the 2021 US Open debutantes

"The 2021 US Open Qualifying Tournament will now offer nearly $6 million in prize money, a 66-percent increase over 2019 [the last time US Open Qualifying was held]," the USTA said in a press release. "Additionally, the first-round main-draw prize money is now $75,000, a 23-percent increase over last year." 

"To achieve these numbers, the players and tour management agreed to decrease the singles champion’s prize from its previous $3 million to $2.5 million. The runner-up prize money also is being reduced accordingly, to $1.25 million. As has been the case since 1973 when the US Open was the first of the four majors to institute the policy, the tournament provides equal prize money for both women and men."

With regard to ranking points, the No.1 ranking is not in play in New York. No.1 Barty will continue her current reign atop the WTA Rankings after the US Open. This fortnight will mark her 91st and 92nd weeks at No.1 overall. After the US Open, the week of September 13, will be Barty’s 86th consecutive week at No.1 (and 93rd overall). 

Key Storylines

Naomi Osaka, Barbora Krejcikova and Ashleigh Barty bid to double up: No.1 Barty comes into the final Slam of the season with a 2021 Player of the Year resume - possible wire-to-wire No.1, most match wins, and five titles including Wimbledon - but Osaka and Krejcikova could have something to say about that if they dominate the fortnight. Don't count out Krejcikova. The French Open champion has won 25 of her past 28 matches and could also leave New York as the Doubles No.1.

Danielle Collins and Jessica Pegula in form and dangerous: Sofia Kenin, Serena Williams and Venus Williams withdrew ahead of the tournament, which leaves a prime opportunity for another American to grab the stage on home soil. Collins and Pegula have been incredibly sharp during the summer season, while Gauff is having an outstanding season and loves the energy on Arthur Ashe Stadium. 

Karolina Pliskova, Aryna Sabalenka eye an elusive major title: Back up to No.4 in the rankings after making the Wimbledon final, Montreal final and Cincinnati semifinals, Pliskova has rediscovered her confidence and consistency. The 2016 finalist looks in good form to break through in New York. As for No.2 Sabalenka, New York is where she made her first Round of 16 at a major in 2018. Having finally made her first Slam quarterfinal and semifinal at Wimbledon, can she put together a bulldozing set of seven matches?

Belinda Bencic riding gold medal momentum: The Tokyo 2020 gold medalist looked good in Cincinnati before she ran into the Jil Teichmann buzzsaw. The US Open, where she made the semifinals in 2019, is her most successful Slam. A possible fourth-round rematch of the Adelaide final against Swiatek would be enticing.

Carla Suárez Navarro says goodbye: The Spaniard said the US Open will be her final tournament. She opens up against Collins. 

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Jack Draper rewarded for US Open run as Brit enters top 20 of ATP rankings for first time

Jack Draper's exciting run to the US Open last four has seen the Brit climb five places in the official ATP Rankings and achieve a new career-high; Watch ATP and WTA Tour events live on Sky Sports Tennis and Sky Sports+ integrated into Sky TV, NOW and Sky Sports app

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Jack Draper's superb run to the US Open semi-finals has been rewarded with his first-ever entry into the world's top 20.

Draper lost to eventual champion Jannik Sinner in straight sets in the last four at Flushing Meadows, which marked the first time a British man has progressed to that stage of the US Open since Andy Murray won the title in 2012.

The 22-year-old solidified his position as British No 1 following an incredible run in New York and has cracked the top 20 of the ATP men's singles world rankings for the first time in his career.

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Draper's run included a hugely impressive straight sets victory over 10th seed Alex de Minaur, and he has risen five places in the latest rankings, now sitting 20th.

The Brit though, is far from content with that, and wants to push up the rankings even further.

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"I've still got a lot to work on. I've still got a lot to improve. At the end of the day, I need to keep on improving my physicality, my mentality, the way I play," he told Sky Sports.

"But there's no reason why I don't belong at the top of the game with these guys. I proved that to myself on a few occasions this year. My goal now is to try and do it more consistently and put myself in front of these guys on a regular basis at the back end of tournaments.

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"I think that is something I'm capable of. But it's just a matter of time."

Sinner, by virtue of his victory, solidifies his grip on top spot with victory in the final Grand Slam of the year, and is only the sixth player in history to earn more than 11,000 ranking points.

Runner-up Taylor Fritz moved up five places to No. 7 in the rankings, whilst US compatriot Frances Tiafoe – whom he defeated in the other semi-final – was also a big climber, moving four places higher in the rankings to 16th.

Sinner: Draper has made his breakthrough

World No. 1 Sinner was full of praise for the Brit, after beating him in the semi-final – with Draper vomiting on court multiple times during a physically exerting encounter.

Sinner believes the Sutton-born star will be a difficult opponent for years to come.

"He's made his breakthrough this week a little bit, playing some amazing tennis, serving very well. Physically he has improved a lot," Sinner said.

"So he's going to be very tough to beat in the future, for sure. I'm happy for him."

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Where is Draper playing in the rest of 2024?

It's not yet confirmed when Draper will next be in action, but after a brief hiatus the ATP Tour swings back into action with events in China and Japan from 16 September onwards.

The Chengdu Open (ATP 250) and Hangzhou Open (ATP 250) tournaments will be live on Sky Sports Tennis from that week, followed by the China Open (ATP 500) in Beijing and Japan Open (ATP 500) in Tokyo from September 23.

All matches will be watchable on Sky Sports as Draper looks to improve his impressive form on hard courts (17 wins - 9 losses), and across the calendar year (30-18) depending on where he next decides to play.

What else is coming up on Sky Sports Tennis in September?

• Jasmin Open, Tunisia - WTA 250 (9-15 September)
• Guadalajara Open, Mexico - WTA 500 (9-15 September)
• Korea Open - WTA 500 (16 -22 September - with Emma Raducanu in action)
• Thailand Open - WTA 250 (16 -22 September)

Sky Sports+ has officially launched and will be integrated into Sky TV , streaming service NOW and the Sky Sports app , giving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost. Find out more here.

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Tennis, ATP - Singles: ATP US Open live scores, fixtures, draws

Tennis ATP - Singles