Alcaraz outlasted Nadal, Federer and Sampras in their debuts on grass

Carlos Alcaraz is taking his first steps on grass. He has played seven games on the most inhospitable surface on the circuit and delivers more: five wins and two losses, which also came against hard bones like Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner. A record that puts him above the starts of Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer and puts him on par with Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic on the green carpet.

The Murcian’s debut on grass took place at Wimbledon 2021, when he was still ranked 75th and had a first round duel on the outdoor courts of the All England Club against Yasutaka Uchiyama. He won in five sets – the first victory of his career at this distance – and ended a short but brilliant career on the surface that he discovered in 2019, when he also played junior at Wimbledon.

That year he was allowed to train with Roger Federer on Wimbledon’s other outdoor court., when he was preparing his attack in the quarterfinals. Alcaraz, still young, was photographed with the Swiss, who a few days later beat Nadal in the semifinals before losing to Novak Djokovic in the final.

The Helvetian is the most successful player in the history of grass, with eight titles at Wimbledon, 10 at Halle and a 65 game winning streak on top. But he was not always king. His debut came at Queen’s -where Alcaraz is competing this week- against a Byron Black who beat him 6-3, 6-0. Amazingly, this was the only ‘donut’ the Basel player could fit on the grass until his final game, against Hubert Hurkacz, at Wimbledon 2021.

In his first seven matches – the same ones Alcaraz played – Federer won twoMargnus Larsson and Arnaud Clement, and lost five, including Yevegeni Kafelnikov and Michael Chang.

In Nadal’s case, his debut on grass took place at Wimbledon 2003, with a victory over Mario Ancic. In that tournament, the first Grand Slam of his career, the Spaniard reached the third round, where he was stopped by Thai Paradorn Srichaphan. In their first seven meetings, Nadal won four meetings, including one against British ranked Lee Childs, and lost three. The record is worse than Alcaraz’s, and the Spaniard has played in five Wimbledon finals and won two titles (2008 and 2010) at the All England Club, as well as becoming the second Spaniard, after Andrés Gimeno, to win at Queen’s.

Yes, Djokovic and Murray are at their level. The Serb won five of his first seven matchesbetween Wimbledon (Juan Mónaco, Guillermo García López, Paul Goldsten and Tommy Robredo) and s’Hertogenbosch (Alex Waske), and lost against Sebastian Grosjean and Jan Hernych, while the Briton, who rolled more on this surface when it came After playing the Challengers here, he won five of his first seven matches between Queen’s (Santiago Ventura and Taylor Dent), Newport (Gregory Carraz) and Wimbledon (George Bastl and Radek Stepanek), losing to Thomas Johansson and David Nalbandian.

Djokovic has seven Wimbledon titles, having not lost since 2017while Murray was the first Briton since Fred Perry in 1936 to win Wimbledon and won two titles there, in 2013 and 2016.

In retrospect, Alcaraz’s record also betters one of the best on grass, that of Pete Sampraswho won four of their first seven matches.

At only 20 years old, Alcaraz has had a good career on grass, especially if it is understood that his aggressive game adapts well to these situations and he still has enough time to pick up the typical grass-court mechanisms . Right now, the attitude and the numbers are what they have.

“I want to see my name among the winners of the most historic tournament. This tournament is so emblematic that one day I want to see my name as a winner”, explained the man from El Palmar after defeating Arthur Rinderknech in his Queen’s debut.