Carlos Alcaraz, at just 19, completed an improbable journey on Sunday in Flushing Meadows as he defeated No. 5 Casper Ruud to win the 2022 US Open. Alcaraz came away with a 6-4, 2-6, 7-6, 6-2 win over Ruud to win his first career Grand Slam title.
In doing so, Alcaraz became the second-youngest player to win a men's US Open title at 19 years, 129 days old, only trailing Pete Sampras. In addition, Alcaraz is the seventh youngest male or female to ever win a Grand Slam tournament. With the Grand Slam victory, Alcaraz becomes the No. 1 ranked player in the world. Additionally, the 19-year-old budding star is also the youngest player to ever be ranked as the world's No. 1 player.
Alcaraz's previous best finish came earlier this year when he reached the 2022 French Open quarterfinals, where he lost to Alexander Zverev. Ruud reached a Grand Slam final for the second time this year, as he also made it to the 2022 French Open final.
Ruud, who also had never won a Grand Slam title entering Sunday, split the opening two sets with Alcaraz. It appeared that Ruud was going to take a two sets to one lead in the third set. But after Ruud took a 6-5 lead, Alcaraz really turned it on. He came back to win the ensuing game and tie it up at 6-6.
The Spanish star won seven of the eight points in the eventual tiebreaker, in addition to winning 10 of the previous 12 points overall.
After splitting the first four games of the fourth set, Alcaraz caught fire as he won four of the final five games to win the match. When it was all said and done, Alcaraz ended up winning eight of the final 11 games en route to his first Grand Slam title.
Prior to Alcaraz's victory, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal had won 20 of the last 22 Grand Slam titles.
As has been the case throughout the match, it's been a back-and-forth affair in the fourth set. Carlos Alcaraz wins the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. It's not surprising that Casper Ruud and Alcaraz have alternated wins in this set.
