Carlos Alcaraz: The 5 players to win 3+ Masters 1000 titles in a season before turning 23
Carlos Alcaraz did not win the Cincinnati Open the way he would have wanted to, but that has not stopped him from joining an exclusive Masters 1000 club.
The 22-year-old’s triumph in Ohio, which came after Jannik Sinner retired with illness after just five games, handed him his third Masters 1000 title of the season.
That makes Alcaraz just the third man since the Masters 1000 format first launched in 1990 to win 3+ titles in the same season before turning 23, emulating four fellow former world No 1s.
Carlos Alcaraz – 2025
Alcaraz is already the winner of eight Masters 1000 titles, and three of those triumphs have come in 2025.
The Spaniard’s first Cincinnati title followed on from maiden triumphs at the Monte Carlo Masters and Italian Open earlier this year.
Alcaraz defeated Lorenzo Musetti in three sets to triumph in Monte Carlo, before going on to beat world No 1 Sinner in straight sets in Rome in May.
It is the first time the 22-year-old has won three Masters titles in a season, and he could still add to his 2025 haul in Shanghai and Paris.
Rafael Nadal – 2005, 2007-09
Nadal is the only man to achieve this feat twice, and in fact achieved it in four separate seasons before turning 23 in June 2009.
Tennis News
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s points and prize money from the Cincinnati Open
Carlos Alcaraz could take over as world No 1 as Jannik Sinner’s US Open plans are thrown into chaos
The Spaniard first achieved the feat as a teenager in 2005, winning his first four Masters titles in Monte Carlo, Rome, Canada, and Madrid that season.
Nadal then won Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, and Rome to complete the feat for a second time in 2007, before Monte Carlo, Hamburg, and Canadian Open triumphs in 2008.
Before his 23rd birthday in 2009, Nadal sealed further titles in Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, and Rome to achieve his fourth such season of winning 3+ Masters crowns.
Roger Federer – 2004
In one of the most dominant seasons of his career, tennis great Federer won three Masters titles in 2004 before turning 23 that August.
The Swiss started his season with victory over Tim Henman in the Indian Wells final, before defeating Guillermo Coria to triumph in Hamburg.
Federer then saw off Andy Roddick to lift the Canadian Open title in August 2004, completing the feat just one week before his milestone birthday.
Marcelo Rios – 1998
The only ATP player to reach world No 1 but never win a Grand Slam title, Chilean great Rios won three of his five career Masters 1000 titles in 1998, the year he turned 23.
Rios completed the ‘Sunshine Double’ that spring, beating Greg Rusedski in the Indian Wells final before an impressive triumph over Andre Agassi at the Miami Open.
He would then claim victory at the Italian Open without picking up a racket in the final, triumphing after Albert Costa was forced to withdraw from the final.
Pete Sampras – 1994
Tennis icon Sampras celebrated his 23rd birthday in August 1994, having won three Masters 1000 titles earlier that season.
The American battled past Petr Korda to win his first Indian Wells title, before completing the ‘Sunshine Double’ with a successful Miami Open title defence, beating his great rival Agassi.
Sampras then won the biggest clay-court title of his career at the 1994 Italian Open, thrashing fellow icon Boris Becker to seal a third Masters title of the season.
Read Next: The 6 women with most WTA 1000 titles: Iga Swiatek with 11, Serena Williams No 1
