Carlos Alcaraz is vying to join an ultra-exclusive club as he takes on juggernaut Novak Djokovic in Sunday night’s fervently-anticipated Australian Open men’s final.
While Djokovic is aiming to go where no tennis player has gone before and earn a 25th Grand Slam title, the Spaniard has his sights set on capturing the major that has so far eluded him.
If the 22-year-old triumphs, he will be the youngest man in the Open era to complete a “career Slam” — winning at least one singles title at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open.
Only five men have achieved the feat since 1968, when the tournaments opened their draws to professionals.
Rod Laver was the first man to win a career Slam in the Open era, having already completed the set in 1962 when only amateurs competed.
Aged 31, the Australian tennis king collected all four major singles title in a single year in 1969.
Thirty years went by until another man joined the Australian. Andre Agassi came from two sets down to overcome Andriy Medvedev and capture his first and only Roland Garros trophy in 1999, aged 29.
There are no prizes for guessing the next three men to do it.
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic each joined the club between 2009 and 2016.
Nadal was the youngest of the “Big Three”, at a bit over 24 years old when he snatched the US Open title in 2010 in four sets over the Serb.
Federer was a couple of months shy of his 28th birthday when he triumphed at Roland Garros in 2009, beating Sweden’s Robin Soderling in straight sets.
Djokovic, in 2016, had just turned 29 when he reeled in his inaugural Roland Garros trophy. The Serbian went on to complete the set twice more, becoming the only man to have done the career Slam thrice.
| Player | Tournament | Age at start of event |
| Carlos Alcaraz | Australian Open 2026 | 22 years 258 days |
| Rafael Nadal | US Open 2010 | 24 years 88 days |
| Roger Federer | Roland Garros 2009 | 27 years 290 days |
| Novak Djokovic | Roland Garros 2016 | 29 years 1 day |
| Andre Agassi | Roland Garros 1999 | 29 years 25 days |
| Rod Laver | US Open 1969 | 31 years 18 days |
Alcaraz, at 22 years and 258 days old when AO 2026 started, would become the outright youngest of that crop.
In another scarcely believable possibility, should Alcaraz triumph, he would have earned seven major singles titles in only 20 Grand Slam tournaments.
In other words, he would have won more than 30 per cent of all the major main-draw singles events he’s contested.
In the Open era, only Bjorn Borg won more in his first 20 Slams, with eight titles.
In just making Melbourne Park’s grand finale, Alcaraz picked up a slew of records, not least being part of the third-longest match at Melbourne Park at five hours and 27 minutes — which he described as “one of the more demanding matches that I have ever played in my career so far”.
He also became the youngest man in the Open era to reach the singles final at all the majors, and the youngest to reach four consecutive Slam finals.
What’s more, only Borg reached more than Alcaraz’s total of eight major finals before turning 23.