Carlos Alcaraz behind only Roger Federer for fewest matches to 25 ATP top-five wins
Carlos Alcaraz has claimed his 25th win over a top-five player in the ATP Rankings and, unsurprisingly, he finds himself in good company in terms of quickest to achieve the feat.
The 22-year-old defeated reigning world No 3 Alexander Zverev in straight sets in the semi-final of the Cincinnati Open to record his 25th win over a player inside the top five of the ATP Rankings.
The five-time Grand Slam winner finds himself joint-second on the list of players quickest to 25 wins over top-five players since the introduction of the ATP Rankings in 1973.
Alcaraz will meet another top-five player in the final as he will face reigning world No 1 Jannik Sinner in the showpiece match and he will look to win three consecutive ATP Masters 1000 finals following his trophy runs at the Monte Carlo Masters and Italian Open.
The 5 men quickest to 25 ATP wins over top-five players:
5. Jimmy Connors – 39
Unfortunately for Connors, he would have had more top-five wins had the rankings been introduced earlier, but as it is, he finished his career with 51 top-five wins and his first 25 came after only 39 matches.
The American’s wins came against the likes of Stan Smith, Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg.
4. Bjorn Borg – 38
Like Connors, Borg also missed out because of the 1973 rankings introduction date, as he had a 61-19 win-loss record against top-five players from August 1973 until he hung up his racket for good in 1993.
The Swede beat the likes of Arthur Ashe, Connors, Ilie Nastase and McEnroe, but his favourite opponent in terms of wins was Vitas Gerulaitis.
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=2. Carlos Alcaraz – 37
Reigning world No 2 Alcaraz is now 25-12 in terms of top-five wins during his career with four of those wins coming against a world No 1 (three against Jannik Sinner and one against Novak Djokovic).
Besides Sinner, Djokovic and Zverev, the Spaniard has also beaten Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Jack Draper and one Rafael Nadal.
=2. Rafael Nadal – 37
Alcaraz equalled his compatriot and childhood hero for quickest to 25 top-five wins with Nadal finishing his career with a 93-63 win-loss record.
Having made his debut in 2003, Nadal secured his 25th win in 2008 with most of his wins coming against Roger Federer, who was the No 1 for the majority of those five years. There were also ins over Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic, who was only starting his career.
1. Roger Federer – 36
The 20-time Grand Slam winner just edges Nadal and Alcaraz as he achieved the feat quicker by just one match.
Federer had a 104-75 record against top-five players by the time he hung up his record and his first 25 victories with win No 25 coming during the latter stages of the 2004 season.
Roddick, Carlos Moya, Lleyton Hewitt, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Andre Agassi and Juan Carlos Ferrero were some of the top-five stars Federer defeated.
