Carlos Alcaraz is already the reigning champion at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
But can the superstar Spaniard claim the two prestigious titles, on ‘natural’ surfaces, back-to-back?
Alcaraz is just 21 and in his short career has already demonstrated an astonishing ability, on the biggest stages, to match the feats of some of the sport’s greatest players.
By winning Roland Garros earlier this month, Alcaraz matched six other titans – Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic – by winning Grand Slam titles on all three surfaces.
Alcaraz became the youngest of all of them to do so.
Should he carry that winning form into Wimbledon, he would join an even more exclusive group of men to achieve the prestigious ‘Channel Slam’.
Winning Roland Garros and Wimbledon back-to-back – tournaments staged in Paris and London, on opposite sides of the English Channel – is considered one of the toughest achievements in tennis. This is due to extreme playing differences between clay and grass, and the brief period players have to adapt their games to a completely new surface.
Only Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Nadal, Federer and Djokovic have managed to win the Channel Slam in the Open era.
Alcaraz, who has openly discussed his desire to achieve history, will try to join those greats when Wimbledon begins on 1 July.
“I'm really excited to start Wimbledon,” Alcaraz said at Queen’s Club last week. “Of course I really want to win every title that I go (to), and I think Wimbledon is even more special. I have time, and excited to start the first match on Centre Court.”
Those comments came after his second-round loss to Jack Draper, giving his preparation a far different feel to that of 12 months ago, when he won Queen’s and then carried that grass-court momentum all the way to the Wimbledon title.
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Those tournament triumphs saw Alcaraz add his name to another exclusive list. Since the formation of the ATP Tour in 1990, only four players – Pete Sampras, Lleyton Hewitt, Nadal and Andy Murray – have completed the Queen’s-Wimbledon double.
Last year, Alcaraz was the top seed at Wimbledon, but will arrive this year as the third seed, with the two players ahead of him, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic, representing big threats.
That’s if Djokovic is healthy enough to compete.
The 24-time major champion has made encouraging progress in his recovery from meniscus surgery and has already arrived at Wimbledon to hit the practice courts. He faces a race against time to be, in his words, “close to my maximum, or at maximum” to ensure his participation at Wimbledon.
Should he make it to the starting line, he’s the most accomplished grass-courter in the field.
Djokovic has won seven Wimbledon titles – including four of the past five championships – and although he lost in five sets to Alcaraz in last year’s final, he has won both of their meetings since then.
And then there’s Sinner, who on his least favourite-surface pushed Alcaraz to five sets in the Roland Garros semifinals, and whose game is likely to be better rewarded on faster grass.
Sinner, now world No.1, is attempting to become just the third man this century, after Federer and Djokovic, to win the Australian Open and Wimbledon titles in the same season.
He enters Wimbledon just as Alcaraz did 12 months earlier: as the top seed with a grass-court title under his belt.
“I love watching him play. I mean, his style, it's really amazing to watch. He's really aggressive. I love these kind of players,” said Alcaraz of Sinner, who went on to win the 500 title in Halle.
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“If I can, I'm gonna watch his matches for sure, and I'm going to follow the tournament in Halle and the tournament that they are playing right now, but it has to be a good time for me.”
His earlier-than-expected exit at Queen’s meant Alcaraz may have had more opportunities to watch Sinner’s run to that title.
But that means he has had more time to study his rival and prepare to fend off a potential challenge as he targets more Wimbledon glory, and more tennis milestones.