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Top ten youngest ATP Masters winners: Where does Carlos Alcaraz feature?

Carlos Alcaraz after winning Miami Masters

Carlos Alcaraz made history when he won the 2022 Miami Open, but how does he compare to other players who won a Masters at a very young age?

Carlos Alcaraz appears to be a young man in a hurry. The Spaniard is not even 19 years old yet but he has already powered himself to the brink of the ATP top ten.

He underlined his obvious potential this month as he won the Miami Masters, beating Casper Ruud in the final.
Masters events are one level below Grand Slams, so the achievement of winning one at such a young age is a significant one.

Where, though, does Alcaraz rank among the youngest players to ever win an ATP Masters? Let's find out.

Marat Safin, Toronto 2000

20 years, 8 months

Every era tends to have a brilliant Russian male tennis player or two, and back at the turn of the century that was Marat Safin.
The Canadian Masters was Safin's fourth ATP title, and he was the world number eight at the time, so he was far from an unknown.
His route to the title was quite kind in fairness, although he probably earned that with a quarter-final win over Pete Sampras. Unseeded Wayne Ferreira awaited in the semis, and it was a qualifier, Harel Levy, who Safin played in the final.
Nevertheless, a Masters is a Masters, and Safin was one of the youngest to ever win one. He went on to win four more during his career.

Sergi Bruguera, Monte Carlo 1991

20 years, 3 months

Spanish players are brought up on clay courts and so that's always the courts on which they feel most comfortable. Bruguera was no different in that regard. In fact, of the 14 career titles he won, 13 of them came on the red dirt.
Monte Carlo has always been a clay specialist's paradise and Bruguera certainly made himself at home there. He won the tournament twice, and they were the only Masters wins of his career.
The first of those came when he was barely out of his teens, and he beat Boris Becker in the final. That probably sounds more impressive than it is, though. However brilliant Becker was, he never managed to win a single title on clay.

Tomas Berdych, Paris 2005

20 years, 2 months

If there is one player you feel for most during the 'big three' era, it is probably Tomas Berdych. If he had played at any other time, he almost certainly would have been a multiple major winner and world number one. With Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in his way, as well as Andy Murray, he became a bit of a forgotten man.

We shouldn't forget how good he was, though. He won 13 ATP titles and helped the Czech Republic to two Davis Cups. He was also a world number four.
The only Masters he won was early in his career. It came at Paris-Bercy when he was ranked a relatively lowly 50.
Back then, Paris was played not on hardcourt as it is today, but on carpet.

His run was superb, beating four top-ten players and Juan Carlos Ferrero (who now coaches Carlos Alcaraz) en-route to the title. In the final, he beat Ivan Ljubicic, who is Roger Federer's long-time coach.

Alexander Zverev, Rome 2017

20 years, 1 month

Before Carlos Alcaraz was the next big thing, Alexander Zverev was.
In fairness, Zverev never really had the sheer 'wow' factor of Alcaraz, but his achievements for a young player are considerable.
Zverev is still just 24 and he has won five Masters, two ATP Finals titles, and reached a Grand Slam final.
The first of those Masters came when he, just a month after his 20th birthday, beat Novak Djokovic in the final of Rome and some would say it remains his most impressive given he also had to deal with Milos Raonic and John Isner along the way.

Andre Agassi, Miami 1990

19 years, 11 months

Andre Agassi being on this list will surprise no one. From the moment the mullet-haired American hit the tennis scene, it was obvious he was going to achieve great things.
He did not disappoint, finishing his career with 60 ATP titles including eight Grand Slams and 17 Masters.
The first of those Masters came in 1990 when he was still a teenager. He wasn't an unknown, of course (he was the world number five and had already won nine ATP 250/500s), but the achievement was still remarkable.
Agassi played the great Stefan Edberg in the final and won the first two sets. Edberg looked to have got his number though when he bageled the teen in the third. Most thought the momentum had shifted and experience alone would see the Swede home from there.
However, Agassi showed the kind of resolve for which he would one day become famous, regrouped, and eased himself to victory.

Novak Djokovic, Miami 2007

19 years, 10 months

Whatever list you are compiling about men's tennis achievements, you know that sooner or later Novak Djokovic is going to turn up.
Djokovic was far from the picture of control he is today as a teen. In fact, he was often very erratic. Much of that was down to an as-yet undiagnosed gluten intolerance, but most of it was just down to being a teenager.
He is the only player to win every Masters title twice, and his first was in Miami. It was only his fourth career title, with the other three coming in ATP 250s, so it was a big step-up and a statement win.
It didn't come easy to him either. He beat Rafael Nadal in the quarter-final and Andy Murray in the semis before outclassing qualifier Guillermo Canas in the final.

Andrei Medvedev, Monte Carlo 1994

19 years, 7 months

Andrei Medvedev is no relation to Daniil, the current world number two, but he was a quality player in his own right.
Medvedev was one of those players who never really delivered on his potential, though, and he looked like he had all the potential in the world as a teenager.
The Ukrainian was already the world number six when he arrived at the 1994 Monte Carlo Masters and he put on a brilliant show.

He beat former world number ones Jim Courier and Yevgeny Kafelnikov before facing off against Sergi Bruguera in the final.

As mentioned before, Bruguera was a brilliant clay player and he had already won the tournament twice before. However, Medvedev steamrollered him in straight sets to take his first Masters title. Three weeks later he won another in Hamburg.

Carlos Alcaraz, Miami 2022

18 years, 11 months

Carlos Alcaraz is a name that many sports fans are learning for the first time this year and it's a name they are going to want to remember.
He has just beaten Casper Ruud to win his first Masters, and the scale of the achievement should not be underestimated.
Alcaraz is the youngest Miami Open winner in history, the third youngest Masters winner ever, and the first teenager to win a Masters for 15 years.
Right now he is looking like a certainly to reach world number one in his career and win multiple majors, and it appears that only injuries could realistically stop him.

The big question for tennis' future right now is not whether or not Carlos Alcaraz is the real deal, but is anyone going to be able to match his level and stop him from dominating.

Rafael Nadal, Monte Carlo 2005

18 years, 10 months

Carlos Alcaraz has been described as the new Rafael Nadal, although in truth they don't share that many similarities at all.
One thing they do have in common, though, is that they displayed their quality from very early on in their careers.
Nadal is the greatest clay court player of all time, so no one has ever been, or will ever be, surprised to see him win any tournament on the surface.
2005 was the year Nadal really started to make his move. He won 11 tournaments that year, including his first Grand Slam and four Masters. Eight of those titles were on clay.

Argentinian duo Gaston Gaudio and Guillermo Coria were his biggest obstacles in Monte Carlo with the latter bageling him in the final. Nadal won it, though, and he has never really stopped winning since.

Michael Chang, Toronto 1990

18 years, 6 months

When thinking about great male tennis players of the last 40 years, Michael Chang doesn't really come into the discussion.
Maybe he should, though. After all, he won a Grand Slam, a Davis Cup and was a former world number two. He also won 34 ATP titles in his career. That's more than the likes of Mats Wilander, Lleyton Hewitt and Jim Courier.
What is never in dispute is that Chang was an exceptional young player. He was the youngest ever Grand Slam winner and he is also the youngest player in history to win a Masters.

That came in Toronta at the Canada Masters, and he beat both Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras while doing it - all while still six months away from his 19th birthday. Remarkable.

READ MORE: Who is 'new Rafael Nadal' Carlos Alcaraz and how many Grand Slams will he win?

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