Carlos Alcaraz, who achieved his 100th victory on the ATP circuit against the Dutch Tallon Griekspoor in the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells, needed 132 matches to reach that round figure and only the American John McEnroe, retired since 1992, surpasses him in needing a party less than him.
Behind are the greatest in world tennis, as Rafael Nadal, also a Spaniard, needed 137 matches to record 100 victories, the Serbian Novak Djokovic 143 and the Swiss Roger Federer, who hung up the racket last year, used 171.
Second place in the ATP world ranking
The young 19-year-old player from Murcia, who currently occupies second place in the world ranking, debuted on the ATP circuit on February 18, 2020, beating fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos 7-6 (2), 4-6, 7 -6 (2) after 3 hours and 36 minutes.
That triumph was followed, to date, by another 99 and Juan Carlos Ferrero’s pupil, who accredits 75.75% of games won, is confident of continuing to increase that tally and that percentage in California, a tournament in which he has the option to recover the number 1 of the circuit. He will get it if he wins the title and in that case he would unseat Djokovic.
Alcaraz’s career is being brilliant and is very reminiscent of the beginnings of Nadal, one of his idols and to whom he is compared so much since he broke into tennis at the highest level, although the man from El Palmar comes out on top there.
The first place, however, is for McEnroe, with his 100 in 131; and the third is for another American like Andre Agassi, with 100 in 135.
Jimmy Connors the best
The record for matches won in the ATP era is still held by the American Jimmy Connors, 1,274 in 1,557 matches (81.82% wins) and followed by Federer, with 1,251 in 1,526 (81.98%); and Nadal, with 1,068 in 1,288 (82.92%).
Fourth is the nationalized Czech American Iván Lendl, with 1,068 in 1,310 (81.53%) and in fifth place is Djokovic, with 1,046 victories in 1,253 matches (83.48%).
That top 10 most historic ATP winner is completed by the Argentine Guillermo Vilas, with 951 in 1,248 (76.20%), the Romanian Ilie Nastase, with 908 in 1,242 (73.11%), McEnroe, with 882 in 1,081 ( 81.68%), Agassi, with 870 in 1,114 (76.05%) and the Swedish Stefan Edberg, with 801 in 1,071 (74.79%).
In that classification, the second Spaniard is David Ferrer, fourteenth overall with 734 victories in 1,111 games (66.07%) and the third Manuel Orantes, sixteenth with 722 in 1,015 (71.13%).
Nicolás Almagro from Murcia, with 397 wins in 675 matches played throughout his career (58.81%), is currently ranked 93rd among the players with the most victories in the ATP.