U.S. Open: Carlos Alcaraz is an all-time great at just 22 … but can he become the greatest?

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NEW YORK — When Carlos Alcaraz showed up to begin his journey to a second U.S. Open title, he debuted a head shaved almost to the scalp.

The explanation was that his brother, Alvaro, had used the wrong clippers, botching the haircut so badly that he needed to start fresh.

But by the end of the tournament Sunday, when Alcaraz re-claimed the No. 1 ranking from his primary rival Jannik Sinner with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory, the military-style crew cut seemed less like a mistake and more of a message.

With the ability to launch an all-out assault on the tennis record books, Alcaraz means business. And the Big Three of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer need to understand that the young man from Murcia, Spain, is on pace to pass them all.

At 22 years, 4 months and 2 days old, Alcaraz became the youngest player in the Open Era to win six major titles. He did it in a US Open where he had full command over his game for nearly every second of every match, dropping just one set en route to the trophy. He did it with a relentlessness and efficiency he had not displayed in any of the 18 Grand Slams he played before this one. And he did it in a way that suggests he’s just getting started.

It’s no doubt a long way from six majors to Djokovic’s 24, which will probably stand as the all-time marker when the 38-year-old says goodbye to the sport within the next year or two. Try as he might to add one more to the tally, even Djokovic admitted after losing to Alcaraz in the semifinals that his chances of getting through him and Sinner in a best-of-five tournament are small at this stage.

But if Alcaraz averages two majors over the next nine years, he’ll catch Djokovic by age 31.

It admittedly sounds absurd. And there are all kinds of factors from health to a simple loss of desire that could derail him somewhere along the way. A decade in sports is a very long time.

But have you watched this guy play? And have you considered that he still lives with his parents in Spain and has his brother cut his hair on occasion?

Point being, he’s still a kid. He’s still improving. And every time he wins one of these, he shows something new.

At this tournament, it was the serve. Though not a weakness — Alcaraz doesn’t have a weakness — it has been the most human part of his game. But at the US.. Open, he won 84% of his first-serve points, the most of any player who advanced out of the first round. He also won 63% of his second-serve points, which led the tournament. He was broken a paltry three times in 101 service games.

Those are all significantly higher than his stats for the year, where he’s won 73% of first-service points, 57% of second-serve points and held serve 86% of the time.

Alcaraz may not always serve that effectively, but now he’s shown that he can. And when he does, there’s nobody who can touch him.

Alcaraz will now head into the fall season with the goal of finishing year-end No. 1 for the second time, as he did in 2022. That is another important record to shoot for given that Djokovic has set the bar at eight.

But everyone understands that in the modern game, it’s mostly about the majors. And when Alcaraz arrives in Australia next January, the pressure will be on to win that title — the one major he hasn’t claimed yet — and become the ninth man to win the career Grand Slam.

He’ll probably do it, too. Because the reality is, no tennis player in history has checked so many boxes so early in their career. Even Nadal, whose record Alcaraz broke Sunday as the youngest to get to No. 6, did not possess this kind of all-surface ability until a bit later.

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Everything Alcaraz has accomplished so far seems so ahead of schedule, it would be foolish to doubt his ability to chase any of tennis’ sacred records.

Earlier this year, a Netflix docuseries produced in Spain followed Alcaraz across the 2024 season, focusing mostly on his breakthrough triumph at the French Open, his repeat Wimbledon title and the crushing loss to Djokovic in the Olympic final that seemed to sap his energy and desire for the rest of the year.

The dominant theme of the film, though, was his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero and agent Albert Molina fretting about his penchant to go celebrate big wins in Ibiza and his general desire to reserve at least part of his life to experience things like most other 21-year-olds.

Perhaps the filmmakers played up that tension for dramatic effect, and the focus on his off-court habits certainly seemed at odds with the fact Alcaraz won two majors last year.

But it did underscore a reality Ferrero has publicly acknowledged many times. In this charismatic kid from Spain, Ferrero has an all-time great on his hands. It’s his job to take him where his talent deserves to go, and that’ll happen the moment Alcaraz is as serious about this as Ferrero is.

We saw the marriage between that goal and a potential destination begin to form at this U.S. Open where Alcaraz could not be stopped.

Sure, there’s quite a distance between where he is now and becoming the greatest of all time. Asking him to do this again and again for the next decade like Djokovic would be unfair of any other player in the world.

But with major No. 6 in just 19 Grand Slams played, Alcaraz deserves a chance to answer that question. At this point, are you really going to doubt him?