The youngest men to win 5 Grand Slam titles: ft. Carlos Alcaraz & Rafael Nadal
Carlos Alcaraz defied the odds to save championship points and stun Jannik Sinner in the French Open final, capturing his fifth Grand Slam title aged 22.
Few tennis players have achieved as much as the Spaniard has at his age, with Alcaraz having only just celebrated his 22nd birthday just over one month ago.
Alcaraz still has three more Grand Slams he can compete in before he turns 23 next month, but he has already joined a legendary group of young multi-major winners.
He is now just the fourth man in the Open Era to have won at least five major titles before his 23rd birthday.
Carlos Alcaraz – 5
The Spaniard is the only man in the 21st century outside of the ‘Big 3’ to have so far won majors in four straight years, and has five in total.
Alcaraz was just 19 when he downed Casper Ruud in four sets to lift the 2022 US Open title, and battled past Novak Djokovic in a five-set thriller to lift the Wimbledon title in 2023.
He then completed the ‘Surface Slam’ with his 2024 French Open triumph, beating Alexander Zverev in five sets, before again defeating Djokovic in the 2024 Wimbledon final.
His victory over Sinner on Sunday maintained his perfect record in Grand Slam finals and earned him his fifth Slam title.
Pete Sampras – 5
The dominant force of the men’s game in the 1990s, US icon Sampras won five of his 14 Grand Slam titles before he turned 23 in August 1994.
Sampras had just turned 19 when he claimed his first Slam title at the US Open in 1990, beating legendary rival Andre Agassi in straight sets.
After almost a three-year wait, the American saw off Jim Courier in four sets to claim his second major at Wimbledon in 1993, before beating Cedric Pioline in the US Open final that same summer.
Sampras downed Todd Martin to claim his first Australian Open title in 1994 and then successfully defended his Wimbledon title, beating Goran Ivanisevic to win his fifth Grand Slam.
Rafael Nadal – 6
Tennis icon Nadal won six Grand Slam titles before his 23rd birthday in June 2009, eclipsing Alcaraz (as things stand) and Sampras by one major.
Unsurprisingly, the bulk of his success came at Roland Garros, winning the title for four straight years from 2005 to 2008.
Nadal defeated Mariano Puerta as a 19-year-old to win his first title in 2005, and then beat Roger Federer in the final for the next three years.
After two previous Wimbledon final defeats, a 22-year-old Nadal then beat Federer in their iconic 2008 SW19 final, before battling past the Swiss to win his sixth major at the 2009 Australian Open.
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Bjorn Borg – 6
Perhaps the first big superstar of the modern era, the iconic Borg won six of his 11 Grand Slam singles titles before celebrating his 23rd birthday in June 1979.
Just days after his 18th birthday, Borg rallied from two sets down to stun Manuel Orantes in the 1974 French Open final, and then beat Guillermo Vilas to defend his title in 1975.
Aged 20, the Swede beat Ilie Nastase to win Wimbledon for the first time in 1976, and he would reign again in 1977 thanks to a five-set triumph over Jimmy Connors.
In 1978, a 22-year-old Borg completed the ‘Channel Slam’ for the first time, beating Vilas in the Roland Garros final before again downing Connors at the All England Club, bringing his haul up to six.
Borg won his seventh major title at the 1979 French Open, just days after his milestone 23rd birthday.
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