Alcaraz on clay: 100 matches and a legacy worthy of greatness

By taking to the court on Wednesday at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters to face Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo, Carlos Alcaraz was guaranteed to reach a new benchmark in his career: 100 tour-level matches played on clay.

As a result, the Spaniard is now in the all-time ranking for the most effective players on the surface with at least 100 matches under their belts, and he goes straight in as the player with the highest win percentage, greater even than that of two-time Roland Garros champion Novak Djokovic.

The current No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings has always enjoyed a special relationship with the surface, and not only because he beat the king of clay, Rafael Nadal, in Madrid in 2022; or because the Grand Slam where he has the most wins (24) is Roland Garros, where he won the title in 2024; or because it is the kind of tennis he grew up playing.

“Previously I said that clay was my second favourite surface after fast courts, but now I’m not sure,” said Alcaraz on Wednesday after signing ‘I missed clay’ on the TV camera in the aftermath of his three-set defeat of Cerudolo. “I think now I’d say it’s my favourite. I simply missed clay. I love this part of the year, I grew up on this surface, so that’s why I’d put it first.”

He also claimed his first ATP Tour victory on clay, beating his countryman Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-6(2) in the ATP 500 in Rio in 2020. He was just 16 years old and had never played in the main draw on the circuit.

Likewise, his first ATP Tour title came on the surface, when he conquered Umag in 2021, as did his first win over a No. 1 in the ATP Rankings. This achievement came in the Madrid semifinals in 2022 against none other than Novak Djokovic. His other triumph against a world number one came last year on the hard courts of Beijing, where he beat Jannik Sinner.

Clay is the surface where he has won the most titles; a total of eight, which is two more than on fast court and five more than on grass. Even when he does not end up with the biggest trophy in his hands, his consistency is at its greatest on this type of court.

Of the 24 clay tournaments he has played, he has reached the quarter-finals 17 times, the semis 15 and the final 12. In other words, he has progressed to the decider in half of his campaigns.

His century of matches on the surface comes at an event where he has a record of 1-1. After bowing out to American Sebastian Korda in his opener in 2022, he has kicked off his latest campaign in Monte-Carlo with a 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 win over Cerundolo in his first match on clay since the Olympic Games in Paris last summer. The result means that Kitzbühel is now the only clay event where he has no wins to his name.

“I’m very happy to be here,” said Alcaraz upon his return to this event. “It’s a tournament that I’ve only played once and I want to play great.”