MELBOURNE, Australia – Carlos Alcaraz has never won the Australian Open nor played in the final of the tournament. In fact, the world number 1 has yet to appear in the semi-finals at the first Grand Slam of the year.
It seems ridiculous. Inscrutable even. A quick check on Wikipedia will certainly rectify this.
After all, there are few tennis players in history who have enjoyed forty months of dominance like Alcaraz. As of August 2022, the magnetic Spaniard has won Wimbledon twice, the French Open twice, the US Open twice and prevailed in eight Masters 1000 events. At the age of 19, he became the ATP’s youngest-ever world No. 1, and has amassed a whopping $50 million in prize money – a figure that is already good enough for fifth place on the list of tennis’s all-time highest earners.
But for all Alcaraz’s accolades, the Australian Open title remains a glaring omission from his resume. Not only has he failed to win the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, but he has never really come close to conquering the court Down Under – a contrast to how he has fared in tennis’s three other majors. At Wimbledon he won 89% of the matches played. At the French Open? Again: 89%. What about the US Open? You guessed it: 89%. Heading into this year’s Australian Open, Alcaraz’s winning percentage was “only” 73%.
“I’m hungry for the title,” Alcaraz said on the eve of the tournament. “This is my main goal for this year. The first tournament, the main goal. I just really want to perform better than previous years.”
So far in his career, Alcaraz’s most memorable match at Melbourne Park remains his 2022 third-round tie against eventual semi-finalist Matteo Berrettini. The then 18-year-old Alcaraz put in a huge performance under the bright sun at Rod Laver Arena, in a match that went to the fifth set decider and lasted more than four hours. And while Alcaraz would fall painfully short, it was a glimpse of the outsized talent that would soon become the benchmark of the tour.
But since then, every Alcaraz trip back to Australia has ended in serious disappointment or been canceled before it even started.
In 2023, a devastated Alcaraz, as the freshly minted world number 1, was forced to withdraw from the tournament after suffering a hamstring injury in the final weeks of his training camp. He returned in 2024 to much fanfare but was upset by an ultra-efficient Alexander Zverev in a one-sided quarter-final that did not see him at his best.
OH MY ALCARAZ 😱
This is UNREAL 🔥@carlosalcaraz • @wwos • @espn • @tntsports • @wowowtennis • #AO26 pic.twitter.com/fSZZ2aITyo
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 23, 2026
Last year’s campaign was also derailed in the quarter-finals, losing in four sets to ten-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic.
“It’s difficult not to have gone further than the quarter-finals here in Australia because I feel like I’m playing good tennis here. I’ve been playing very good tennis over the past two years,” Alcaraz said earlier this week. “Zverev and Djokovic… they are unusual players to play against in the quarter-finals, if that [ranked] one or two in the world.”
That loss to Djokovic ensured that Alcaraz had the most successful season of his career. He claimed eight titles, including the US Open and French Open crowns, reached nine consecutive tournament finals between April and September and won a career-best 71 of 80 matches played.
Alcaraz carried that form into this fortnight’s event at Melbourne Park after progressing to the fourth round without dropping a set. His 32nd round draw against Frenchman Corentin Moutet was a two-hour display of his ridiculous skill, craftsmanship and athleticism, a match that left his seeded opponent laughing to himself – and running out of answers.
Now a match against American Tommy Paul awaits, with the winner facing 10th seed Alexander Bublik or top-ranked Australian Alex de Minaur in the quarter-finals.
Ending this fortnight with the Australian Open title would make Alcaraz the ninth men’s player to collect all four majors in his career. He would also be the youngest of the group to achieve the feat, breaking compatriot Rafael Nadal’s existing record by almost two full years.
“Completing the Grand Slam career is a great thing to do. Being the youngest [to have] If I’ve done it before, it’s even better,” Alcaraz said. ‘I’m just happy with the way I see myself improving every match and every training session. I know I will keep going.
“I feel like this year is probably one of those years where I’ll be able to do that, or I’ll have an opportunity.”
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