Explaining Carlos Alcaraz's early Grand Slam success in cricketing terms

If ever there was an epitome of the quote 'Innocence is bliss', look no further than the man who took the sporting world by storm last night - Spain's Carlos Alcaraz. Not often does an event or a result outshine a Euro final in football, yet, Alcaraz pulled off just that by winning Wimbledon on July 14.

And added to his rapidly-growing legacy at just 21 is that he defeated a 24-time Grand Slam winner, Novak Djokovic. A man, who had not lost in the Wimbledon center court from 2013 to 2022 until Alcaraz's pain-inflicting back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024.

By making arguably the greatest player in the sport look like a mortal, the Spaniard at the tender age of 21 is already making heads turn and several fans and experts claim him to be the future GOAT.

For context, Alcaraz already has more Grand Slams (4) than the fourth member of the big four of the previous generation - Andy Murray (3). And the four Grand Slams have come on three different surfaces, a showcase of his versatility and adaptability.

Before we dive into finding out if there has ever been a cricketing equal to what Alcaraz is doing, here's a quick peek at a few of the Spaniard's mind-boggling achievements.

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Alcaraz has already set several unimaginable records and is coming for more

With his 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 demolition of seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz has already cemented his place in the tennis history books.

A series of 'youngest' records have taken a pounding along with a few 'all-time' records as well.

Alcaraz is the third youngest player in the Open Era to win back-to-back Wimbledon at age 21 years and 70 days after Boris Becker (18 years 227 days) and Bjorn Borg ( 21 years 26 days). The young sensation already became the youngest player ever to win a slam on three different surfaces when he triumphed in the French Open earlier this year.

Alcaraz is also only the second player after Roger Federer to win his first four Grand Slam finals. He became only the sixth player in tennis history to win the 'Channel Slam' (French Open and Wimbledon in the same year).

And to have achieved all of this at 21 makes us wonder how he stacks up against the big three of Tennis - Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic when they were at a similar age or stage in their careers.

Alcaraz vs the Big Three

Alcaraz vs Big 3 after 4 slams

Lest we forget, Federer finished on 20 Grand Slams (3rd all-time in men's tennis), while Nadal and Djokovic are on 22 and 24 ( 2nd and 1st all-time in men's tennis), respectively.

And to think Alcaraz has reached to his fourth Grand Slam title faster than the big three in age and the number of matches played makes him a prospect to eventually threaten tennis records never imagined in our wildest dreams. Now it is up to this Spanish marvel to continue on this trajectory and rewrite history books frequently at every step of the way.

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Have we seen a phenomenon like Alcaraz in cricket?

For any cricketer to relate to Carlos Alcaraz's achievements in tennis, it would have to be one that broke several 'youngest' records in various aspects of the sport.

The first name that almost unanimously comes to mind, especially among Indian fans, is the legendary Sachin Tendulkar. The Little Master scored his first Test century at the age of only 17, making him the third youngest all-time.

Tendulkar was also the youngest ever to reach 1,000 Test runs at 19 years and 217 days.

The champion batter was also the youngest to 2,000 Test runs at just age 20 and achieved the same when he was the youngest to 5,000 Test runs at age 25.

While the former England captain Alastair Cook surpassed Tendulkar as the youngest to milestones like 7,000 and 8,000 Test runs, the Indian legend remains the flagbearer for overachieving at a young age, similar to Alcaraz in tennis.

Tendulkar eventually finished as Test cricket's all-time leading run-scorer with 15,921 runs and one of the key reasons behind that is his ability to score big from a younger age than most.

The now-51-year-old is even the youngest ever to score 10 Test centuries at the age of 23 years and 71 days.

Yet, when it comes to ODI, several cricketers boast the 'youngest' records for each 1,000 runs or 'n' number of centuries. However, Tendulkar is the youngest to 2,000 to 5,000 ODI runs between the ages of 20 and 23.

But, Alcaraz stands alone in his ability to rack up both 'youngest' and 'fastest' records in several fields of tennis, an achievement even Tendulkar did not achieve in cricket. Most of the fastest (by innings) to milestones in ODIs belong to the likes of Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, and Virat Kohli, among others.

India's Shubman Gill has started breaking ODI batting records at a young age, thanks to his incredible 2023 season. Yet, he is well behind in Tests and T20Is for him to be projected as the Alcaraz of cricket.

When it comes to bowling, Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan started his international career at 17 with immediate success. The champion bowler has several fastest and youngest records in white-ball cricket, yet, has very little to show for in the Test format.

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In conclusion, even as similar as Tendulkar was in cricket to Alcaraz currently in tennis, achieving ultimate team glory while being the youngest and fastest in several individual categories has never been seen in cricket like we are witnessing with the Spaniard in tennis.

A team sport also makes it harder for a player to achieve the ultimate success as individual records do not always equate to team accomplishments.

However, for cricket fans to comprehend the enormity of Alcaraz's numbers at such a young age, they can look back at Tendulkar's path at the early stages of his career as the ideal example and even that may fall slightly short.

Tendulkar remains by far the all-time leading run-scorer in international cricket, begging the question - Will Carlos Alcaraz follow a similar path and finish with the most grand slams in Tennis history?