Alcaraz on clay: 100 games and a legacy at the height of the largest | ATP Tour

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Alcaraz on beaten land: 100 games and a legacy at the height of the largest

Spanish has the highest percentage of victories in this type of court among active tennis players

April 09, 2025

With the simple fact of jumping on the track this Wednesday at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters to measure the Argentine Francisco Cerú, Carlos Alcaraz guaranteed a new milestone in his career: reaching 100 games on clay at the ATP Tour.

Thanks to this, the Spanish enters the historical classification of more effective players on this surface with at least 100 played games, and is positioned as the active tennis player with a better percentage, even above a multiple Roland Garros champion like Novak Djokovic.

Higher percentage of clay victories on the tour (minimum 100 games)

The performance he has shown in this first hundred of his career about clay also graduates, for now, as one of the greats of the surface still with just 21 years. In fact, Alcaraz is the second player with the most victories in this century in his first 100 games on clay. Only Rafael Nadal, who achieved 88 of 100 to 19 years old.

More victories after its first 100 games on clay in the open era

*His first surface matches were before the open era, which began in 1968.

And is that current No. 3 of the PIF ATP Rankings has had a special relationship with this surface. And not only because in these conditions he beat the king of the whipped earth, Rafael Nadal, in Madrid 2022; or because its greatest amount of victories (24) at Grand Slam level is in Roland Garros, where he conquered the title in 2024; or because it grew in this type of court.

“I had already responded that the whipped land was my second favorite surface after fast clues, but now I don’t know,” Alcaraz said on Wednesday about signing ‘I missed the clay’ on the television camera, after his triumph in three sets before closing it. “I think I want to put her like my favorite.

Also in this type of track he achieved his first triumph in the ATP Tour, after beating 7-6 (2), 4-6, 7-6 (2) to his compatriot Albert Ramos-Viñolas in the ATP 500 of Rio de Janeiro of 2020. He was barely 16 years old and had never before played a ‘Main Draw’ in the circuit.

Likewise, in clay he achieved his first title at the ATP Tour, thanks to his conquest in UMAG 2021, as well as his first victory against a No. 1 of the PIF ATP Rankings. 2022 arrived in Madrid and before no less than Novak Djokovic in the semifinals. His other triumph against this type of players happened last year on the hard tracks of Beijing, where he beat Jannik Sinner.

In addition, clay has been the surface on which it has added the most titles. A total of eight, two more than in fast tracks, and five more than on grass. And no matter how much it ends up keeping the greatest trophy, its regularity stands out in this type of track.

Of the 24 tournaments he has played in the past in these conditions, he has reached the rooms on 17 opportunities, the semifinals in 15 and the final in 12. That is to say that in the middle of his participations he has reached the last day of the event.

Paradoxically, the centenary of matches played under these conditions arrives in a tournament in which it now has a 1-1 record. After falling with the American Sebastian Korda in his debut in 2022, he began his production in Montecarlo winning 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 to close it in his first match on the surface since the final of the Paris Olympic Games in last summer. Thanks to that, Kitzbühel is the only contest about clay in the tour in which Alcaraz has not added a triumph.

“I am very happy to be here,” Alcaraz said on his return to this event. “It is a tournament that I had only played once and I want to play big.”