It doesn’t get any bigger than this.
Sure, it won’t make headlines outside of hardcore tennis circles becaue Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer are not involved. Real tennis fans know this, though: the stakes literally could not be any higher in the 2022 U.S. Open men’s singles final.
Not only are Carlos Alcaraz and Casper Ruud battling for their first-ever Grand Slam title, but whoever wins will become No. 1 in the world for the first time.
That’s right; it’s a winner-take-all showdown in every sense.
Ruud is the lower-ranked player (currently seventh), but he is the one who has been to a slam final before. Competing on his preferred clay-court surface, the Norwegian finished runner-up to Rafael Nadal this spring at Roland Garros. He has earned another major title shot following victories in New York over Kyle Edmund, Tim van Rijthoven, Tommy Paul, Corentin Moutet, Matteo Berrettini, and Karen Khachanov. Only Paul has pushed Ruud to five sets.
The story has been much different for Alcaraz. One, his run to the final was not surprising–and perhaps even expected. Two, it was much tougher. Alcaraz has survived three consecutive five-setters, beating Marin Cilic in the fourth round, Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals, and Frances Tiafoe in the semis. The Spaniard’s match against Sinner lasted five hours and 15 minutes and ended at 2:50 am–the latest finish in U.S. Open history.
Somehow, Alcaraz bounced right back to win another marathon against Tiafoe and set up Sunday’s incredibly special occasion.
“It’s close,” the 19-year-old said of the No. 1 ranking. “But at the same time (it) is so far away, you know? It’s a final of a Grand Slam, fighting for No. 1 in the world, something that I [have dreamt of] since I was a kid.”
Ruud would have clinched the top spot if Alcaraz had lost to Tiafoe, but now it all comes down to Sunday. The Norwegian wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I think what’s most fair is if we both reach the final and whoever wins the final reaches the world No. 1,” he said prior to the Alcaraz-Tiafoe match. “That would be I think the ideal situation.”
But this could be a be-careful-what-you-wish-for-situation. In his two trips to slam finals, Ruud did not face a single top-10 opponent. This a steep step up in competition for the 23-year-old, and one that he has not yet been able to handle. He trails the head-to-head series 2-0, having lost in straight sets on the red clay of Marbella in 2021 and in the Miami final earlier this season. It should also be noted that he has never won a title above the 250 level. Alcaraz, by contrast, has won two 1000s and two 500s this year alone.
Ruud could emerge victorious if he manages to make it a long, physical five-setter, but Alcaraz may blow him off the court before it reaches that point.
Pick: Alcaraz in 3
It’s official; Ruud is a dud. He underperforms in big finals.
He needed to take of those 3 set points in the 3rd set. Alcaraz want going to let him win after that.
If Ruud takes 1 of those 3 set points in the 3rd, he wins. What a cat.
Ruud is an ATP250 player that might win a masters.
Congrats to Alcaraz, we finally have a teenage slam winner seventeen years after Rafa’s 2005.
Rafa and Spain should be happy that Spain has someone to continue with slam winning glory in tennis, when Rafa is nearing the end of his tennis career.
Alcaraz is the real deal, other top players in their 20s better buck up before Alcaraz is going to win them (the slams) all!
Had Ruud won the third set, things might be different now. I knew when it went to a TB, Ruud was going to lose the set, because Alcaraz’s style of play would give him (Alcaraz) a very high chance of winning in a TB; he simply could run the whole day without feeling tired and won most points in the TB!
Casper Ruud is gracious and a class act in his speech.
Congrats to Carlos Alcaraz! 🏆🤗
Waving to Mira Andi 👋👋and Alison.
Which reminds me, 2 WTA brackets are waiting to finish.
Imo, Ruud was playing from too far back, so Alcaraz had lots of chances to step forward to control the court.
To me Ruud was returning serves from too far back but he’s not quick enough to cover the court the way Rafa could.
I think he should learn to do something that Murray did when returning serves, ie step forward when returning after reading the serve; if he couldn’t have that skill like Murray’s, then at least after returning the serve, he should quickly step forward to be closer to the centre of the baseline. In that way, he would be in a better position to handle the ball coming back to him from whichever direction.
Alcaraz OTOH, was quick around the court, whether it’s from way behind the baseline or anywhere else. He’s also more willing to step forward, or moved to the net to control the point.
I think court positioning is very important in tennis, it may allow you to be in a better position to control the points and even the match. Fed had done so well doing that, followed by Djoko when he rose to the top of men’s tennis. Rafa had also done that by moving to the net as often as he could esp when playing on non clay surfaces.
Alcaraz has got the gist of it, plus he’s athletic and very fit, has the guts and willingness to take risk, has tough mental strength and self belief and he has a complete set of tools. What he needs is to add in more dimensions to his game, to vary his game plan to handle different types of opponents.
Yeah, congrats to Alcaraz though I hoped Ruud would win that third set he a nice guy.Only one winner though. Hopefully now Carlitos will calm down, mature an d not have to celebrate afte3 every single point he wins.Apart from that youthful cockiness, I like him.
Mine are in.No rest for the Bracketeers
That was to Elizabeth
Hey hey hey RC!…waving to u too!😀👋
Sorry 4 Casper & his fans!…but i think he needs to toughen up his mental toughness if he wants to win a major in the future…it’s very obvious to c… gonna be interesting to c how these confident young guns will handle the ‘owner’ of the AO next year!…esp Alcaraz!…Can’t wait!
Who are you refering to Mira as owner .Djokovic? As it’s his most successful slam..
Id love to see an alcaraz vs Djokovic qf at ao alcaraz will end year as 1 and Djokovic maybe 7 or 8. That match needs to happen in qf n it can be a bloody good one..
Rafa i don’t know what to expect ..me thinks he has no slam left .body is just breaking down too often n these young guys like Alcaraz are so fast n quick ,it’s impossible to get past them esp with a poor serve..
Congrats Alcaraz. Well deserved.
Hey sanju!…Yeah!…i meant Novak when i said owner up there…can’t wait for their meeting!,no matter what stage..facing Novak at AO like facing Rafa at FO..imagine that!..if Carlos still no 1,it’s gonna be awesome!😀..tho i still give an edge to novak..
I went to bed early in the second set as I was very tired.
I see Ruud got a set. But Alcaraz wasn’t playing anywhere near the level he played against Tiafoe or Sinner. I thought he looked tired and probably nervous, missing a lot of shots.
Ferrero said the big rivalry for the future after Rafa and Novak depart will be Alcaraz Sinner.
Everyone has recency bias so I will wait and see. Come wimby next year, it’s highly likely Novak will have won AO and be on #22 and Rafa will have won RG and be on #23.
The rankings are an utter mess and that’s not good as the chances of Rafa and Novak meeting early increase.
Elizabeth. I know Iga is shy although she speaks very well. When she’s nervous she can be beaten early but she’s deadly in the latter stages when her confidence comes back.
I like Ons but I don’t think either final she played she really got her game going and seemed tense.
I think Rybakina has been treated shabbily as have all the wimby finalists losing their points which I think is borderline absurd. It’s very bad for the tour for Novak to be ranked so low. Also unfair to RYbakina and NK would be ranked a lot higher.
Hello again mira!!
Thought I would say hello to you on another thread!😀
I am hoping Rafa takes time out now to spend with Mery as having his first child is way more important than silly old Laver Cup &tc.
Think he needs a rest anyway…
Hey back amy!…yeah!..agree with u bout Rafa amy!..i think he distracted with mery at USO the other day..abdominal issue yeah..but worried bout mery & his son also played a part too..
Anyway hope everythings will be ok for them all!..After little one safely out,Rafa will be focus on tennis once again!..this time with happy heart!😀
*Waving* to AM! Good to see you back.
Hey M!…waving back at ya!😀👋
I just added what would have been wimby points onto the rankings.
Rafa would have been #2.
Novak would have been #4!
NK would have been #13.
That’s much more balanced.
Even scarcely playing this year Rafa is a thousand points ahead of Ruud in the race! With wimby points he is 1, 750 ahead. I think it’s 750 for a GS semi final! Near enough anyway.
With wimby points Rafa would only be around 20 points behind Alcaraz in the race.
I did read that Alcaraz currently hadw the lowest number of points ever in the Open era to be #1.
It’s certainly telling that Rafa has nearly as many even without wimby points and he has hardly played this year.
amy,
Thanks for putting up what should have been the rankings. I think it was appalling to not give rankings points for Wimbledon. This nonsense about not letting the Russians play caused the tennis organizations to not award rankings points. What a mess! It would have made so much more sense to give rankings points and not penalize the other players.
I do not think either Alcaraz or Ruud should have been in the running for no. 1. I could see Med being no,1 because he already won a slam beating Novak going for the calendar slam. Then he made it to another final at this year’s AO. Rafa was the best player this year, but injuries did him in.
Novak certainly should not be ranked that low. I don’t think denying rankings points made any sense at all.
I was reading on VB and there is a lot of dislike for Alcaraz. The comparison with him and Rafa has annoyed some of them. It is ridiculous. Hearing JMac and Chris Fowler saying that Alcaraz has everything and Rafa at 19 did not have as good a serve, was by far the stupidest comment I heard. How the hell do they think he beat Fed back then? Rafa had to beat the best back in the day. Nobody could beat Fed.
They also talked about his cheerleading for himself every time he makes a good shot. Pushing the crowd to cheer him on every winner is showboating of the worst kind.
I respect his talent and his game, but I do not like him. We will see how he handles this. But comparisons with Rafa or any of the big three, are truly just not reasonable right now. Let him earn his greatness. Do not anoint him with something he has not yet earned. Don’t disrespect the top three who have proven their greatness and longevity in this sport. They are a class apart.
Nny, I think taking away rankings points was an absurd home goal. The player who lost most is probably Rybakina who has been treated badly imo.
I do find the rhetoric from some of the commentators about Alcaraz extremely bizarre in one vital respect: putting down arguably the 3 greatest players ever, 2 of whom are the most popular players ever with enormous fan bases, is obviously a silly strategy. Fans of these players are going to get riled up and turn against Alcaraz.
As for JMac he is absurdly inconsistent. In the Spring he was talking Alcaraz up as on a par with the big 3. But just before the USO began he was saying Alcaraz wouldn’t match their achievements!!😀😀
He is all over the place and forgets his own arguments.
Anyway, from the level I saw yesterday numerous players could have beaten Alcaraz. Novak, Rafa, Med, Zverev, NK.. Tiafoe or Sinner would have beaten him playing at that level.
I am not going to mention Ruud because I think he will go back to getting frequently beaten early on hard courts. I think this was a flash in the pan. He lost to Shelton in the early rounds at cincy and that’s just par for the course for him.
I do agree that disrespecting the big 3 and their extraordinary achievements is pretty contemptible. But also, as I said, it’s astonishingly counter productive.
amy,
I agree with you that Ruud benefited from the truly absurd lopsided draw at RG. Maybe one can say it happened again. But I do think that you don’t get to no.5 without doing anything. He may be the kind if player who will win Masters and not slams. I don’t know yet. But you may be right about him.
I absolutely think that the other players you mentioned could have beaten Alcaraz in the final. Sinner came the closest. He had match point in the fourth set and was up a break in the fifth set. He says it was the worst loss of his career! At 21 years old? I guess at this point it was the worst loss. Hopefully the experience will help him the next time. I like him more each time I watch him play.
The comparisons with the big three need to stop! JMac should know better. Saying that Alcaraz has the complete game as opposed to 19 year old Rafa who beat Fed at that time, is simply the stupidest comment I have heard yet.
Nobody ever has it all. The big three pushed each other and it made them all even better. They kept working on getting fitter and mentally tougher. They would never have thought at any time that they had it all!
JMac Ned’s to just shut up! He is making himself look like a caricature.
Well, who could ever predict that anyone would match the Big Threes achievements?
I didnt hear the JMAC comments but saying he was on a par with the Big Three , isnt the same argument – he could have been talking about his potential , his talent or completeness of his game at the same age , etc.
If you didn’t hear the comment, then you can’t argue the point. I did hear it. Unfortunately. Alcaraz does not have it all! That is just utter nonsense. Where was heat RG when he was installed as one of the favorites? What about Wimby? He has not beaten any of the big three in a slam.
Alcaraz does not have a complete game at 19! Looking at the big three, they never would have sat back and thought they had it all. Even when Rafa managed to beat Fed at the very prime of his career at Wimbledon, after beating him at RG, even then Rafa would not have thought he was superior to everyone and had it all.
JMac did the same thing with Kyrgios after he beat Med. He was greatness personified! Nobody could beat him! Yeah right! Until Khachanov beat him. This is just silly nonsense that makes no sense. To hyperventilate about every player that comes along playing well is idiotic.
If you give someone greatness when they have not earned it, you are cheating them.
It’s called hyperbole .Mac once said Federer was the greatest talent ever in the universe.
Laver said Fed had too much natural ability in his body for someone to beat him in a Wimbledon final (cant remember who it was).
He wasnt far wrong.
It’s called hyperbole
Yes and it’s nonsense! I sometimes think these tennis analysts just like to hear the sound of their own voices. But it is beyond annoying. Perspective is important, too.
I prefer the ones who stick to sound tennis facts. Often it depends what channel they working for .Sometimes they clearly know better but talk rubbish anyway .
Yes, and while we all like to do our own tennis analysis, and can be excused out lack of perspective ,these people are paid well and broadcast to millions.
It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. The same thing happened with Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. Being called the GOAT or King gave them inspiration to win a lot more than anyone expected. They were riding the adulation.
I think Alcaraz can sense the moment, and im sure he’s got plenty of people pissing in his ear about it too. He knows he doesn’t have to have it all just yet to maintain his spot at the top going and while he continues to improve and mature, the others will be inching closer to retirement.
Sorry, “gave them inspiration to win a lot more than they would’ve without all the arse kissing”.
The big three did not need anything to motivate them. It was in all of them. They brought out the best in each other. We will not see anything like it again.
We will see if Alcaraz can hold onto no. 1. We will see if he can beat all comers. But this year the slams were do’inated by Rafa and Novak. That’s a fact. They may be older but they still ruled the slams.
That should not be forgotten in all of the hyperbole about Alcaraz.