5 men with the best win rate against top 5 players: Carlos Alcaraz 2nd, Novak Djokovic 5th

Ewan West 14 May 2025 6:01 PM

Carlos Alcaraz in Rome

Carlos Alcaraz continued his sublime clay-court form with a decisive triumph against Jack Draper at the 2025 Italian Open.

The Spanish maestro downed Draper 6-4, 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the Masters 1000 tournament in Rome.

Alcaraz‘s win improved his record on clay this season to an outstanding 13-1 and saw him reach his first semi-final at the Foro Italico.

Prior to Rome, Alcaraz secured the Monte Carlo Masters title and finished as a runner-up in Barcelona before injury forced him to miss the Madrid Masters.

By beating Draper — who is the world No 5 — Alcaraz has bettered his outstanding statistics against elite opposition.

The 21-year-old has now registered 38 wins over opponents ranked in the top 10 — with 21 of these victories against top five players.

Alcaraz holds a stunning 65.6% win rate against opposition in the top five, which is the second highest ratio among ATP players who have faced top five opponents on a minimum of 10 occasions.

Only Bjorn Borg holds a better win percentage against players ranked in the top five, with the Swedish legend standing at a stratospheric 73.8%.

Best win rate against ATP Top 5 players

1. Bjorn Borg – 73.8%

2. Carlos Alcaraz – 65.6%

3. Pete Sampras – 62.9%

4. Boris Becker – 61.8%

5. Novak Djokovic – 60.5%

Alcaraz has now reached 11 Masters 1000 semi-finals, which is the most of any player born since 2000. He will face Alexander Zverev or Lorenzo Musetti in the last four in Rome.

World No 1 Jannik Sinner has progressed to the semi-finals at Masters events 10 times, and he can move level with Alcaraz in that statistic if he beats Casper Ruud in his Rome quarter-final.

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After his win against Draper, Alcaraz was asked for his thoughts on the atmosphere in Rome.

“Well, I think the people here are incredibly good,” the world No 3 said. “They have a lot of passion in sports in general. Like once the football, I saw the atmosphere there, it was huge.

“Here in the tennis, we could see the atmosphere in every court. I think it is great for the tennis player, for the tennis, for everyone having the Italian people around.

“I’m just super, super grateful for the support that I’m receiving in every practice, in the matches. I just enjoy playing in front of them. I just hopefully keep it going.”

The four-time Grand Slam champion rated his quarter-final victory as one of his best performances of the season so far.

“I think I started pretty well,” Alcaraz assessed. “I end the match pretty well, as well. I lost the focus a little bit in the second set. It wasn’t too long. It was pretty good.

“But yeah, probably was one of the most complete matches that I played this year.”