Carlos Alcaraz has already matched an Andy Murray record after 2025 achievement
Carlos Alcaraz has matched Andy Murray for time spent at No.1 after the Spaniard began his 41st week on top.
After an impressive year that saw him win the French and US Opens, Alcaraz reclaimed the No.1 spot from Jannik Sinner and in the four weeks since the American final, the Spaniard has now pulled level with the famous Scot.
It was at the US Open where Alcaraz first took the No.1 spot back in 2022 when his victory over Casper Ruud made him the youngest player in history to reach top spot. Alcaraz was just 19 years and four months old at the time.
Alcaraz lost his run to Djokovic in January 2023 before reclaiming it in March and the pair traded the spot up until June 2024 when Sinner’s impressive run sent him top.
But two Slam wins over his long-time competitor saw Alcaraz reclaim No.1 spot and his performances since then mean he is guaranteed to finish the year as the best on tour.
But while Alcaraz’s run has been split up, Murray’s 41-week streak on top came all in one go.
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Having been behind Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer, Murray played his best year of tennis in 2016, winning a second Wimbledon title and a second Olympic gold.
Nine titles in the year saw him move ahead of Djokovic to go to No.1 and Murray stayed there until August 2017 when Nadal moved back to the top.
Murray’s run moved him to 14th in the all-time list of most weeks at No.1 but he has since been surpassed by Sinner and come Monday next week, Alcaraz too will be ahead of him.
The Spaniard does though have some way to go to match Djokovic who has spent 428 weeks on top in his career so far, the most of any player in history.
At 22, time is on Alcaraz’s side and were he to stay top from now until he was Djokovic’s age, he would have spent 853 weeks on top.
Djokovic though does not have the record for the most consecutive weeks as that goes to Federer who was No.1 from February 2004 to August 2008, a run of 237 weeks. Djokovic meanwhile spent 122 weeks on top.
Alcaraz’s best effort so far is 20 which he did from September 2022 to January 2023. Sinner though is 11th on the consecutive list having been No.1 for 65 weeks.
Given the talents of the two, it is hard to see how Federer’s record is broken and would take quite the run from either player to match the Swiss’s efforts.
