“This trophy means everything!” – Carlos Alcaraz reacts after winning the year-end world No. 1 trophy

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2 years ago

Carlos Alcaraz with the year-end world No. 1 trophy (Twitter)

The 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz has been crowned the year-end world No. 1 for the first time in his career. He became the youngest player to achieve the feat.

It has been a surreal season for young Carlos Alcaraz. He considers fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal his idol and is doing well to follow in the footsteps of the 22-time Grand Slam champion. Alcaraz bagged five titles this season and the biggest of the lot came at the US Open.

Carlos Alcaraz (Image: Roland-Garros – Twitter)

With that triumph, Alcaraz soared to the top of the ATP rankings. However, finishing the year at No. 1 was still far away. He didn’t fare too well in the tournaments he played following the US Open. An injury eventually ended his season and he had to wait for the results of other players in the few tournaments that remained in the year.

Nadal, who is a five-time year-end No. 1, was in pursuit of Alcaraz but to topple the youngster, the 36-year-old had to win the ATP Finals. However, he crashed out of the competition after losing to Taylor Fritz and Felix-Auger Aliassime. World No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas was also in the race but he had to win the ATP Finals without losing a match in the competition. That didn’t happen as he went down to Novak Djokovic in his first match.

With all results falling in place for Alcaraz, he became the youngest-ever season-end No. 1. He was invited to the ATP Finals in Turin so that he could be awarded the No. 1 trophy. Alcaraz accepted the invitation gleefully and came to Turin to lift the title. Alcaraz posted a video on his Twitter account with the trophy and thanked everyone for their support. He wrote:

“This trophy means everything! 😍🏆 Thank you everyone for your support and belief!”