Alcaraz's Clay-Court Success Paces Tour Entering Roland Garros

  • Posted: May 19, 2022

Alcaraz’s Clay-Court Success Paces Tour Entering Roland Garros

Spaniard holds Tour-leading 23-3 clay record in last 52 weeks

It’s no surprise that a Spaniard leads the ATP Tour in clay-court match-win percentage for the 52 weeks leading up to Roland Garros. But rather than King of Clay Rafael Nadal, it’s the 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz who paces the field, according to statistics from the Infosys ATP Performance Zone.

Alcaraz holds a 23-3 clay record over the last 52 weeks, including his third-round run in his Roland Garros debut last year — good for an 88.5 per cent match-win rate. Alcaraz has won four clay titles in the last year, with three this season. He won his first ATP Tour title in Umag last July, and followed it up with triumphs in Rio de Janeiro, Barcelona and Madrid this season to rise to a career-high of No. 6 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

Remarkably, the man from Murcia has won more titles than matches lost on that clay-court run, which is highlighted by a 16-1 mark on the surface in 2022.

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Novak Djokovic is second on the clay win-percentage list, compiling a 21-3 record for an 87.5 per cent win rate. Seven of those victories came last year in his Roland Garros title run, and five came last week en route to the Internazionali BNL d’Italia trophy. Djokovic also won the one-off Belgrade Open just prior to Roland Garros one year ago, scoring four match victories to claim the title in his home city.

Both Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud have more clay wins than Alcaraz over the last 52 weeks, with the Norwegian earning a tour-leading 28 wins and five titles over that period. Tsitsipas stands at 25-5 with two titles (Lyon 2021, Monte Carlo 2022), his 83.3 per cent win rate third behind Djokovic. Ruud’s five clay titles have came in Geneva, Bastad, Gstaad and Kitzbuhel last season and in Buenos Aires this February.

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Diego Schwartzman is the only other player to reach the 20-wins mark in the last 52 weeks. His 22-10 record gives him a 66.8 win rate, putting him 10th by that measure.

In addition to multiple-title winners Alcaraz, Djokovic, Tsitsipas and Ruud, the following men have also lifted clay trophies in the past 12 months (listed by clay-court match-win rate): Pablo Carreno Busta, Sebastian Baez, Andrey Rublev, Sebastian Korda, David Goffin, Pedro Martinez , Reilly Opelka, Holger Rune and Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

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