December, for most tennis players, is synonymous with a break from work and the start of the season. Stop the racket for a few days and start thinking about the challenges ahead. But, in the case of Carlos Alcaraz, the task of planning what to do, where to play, and what titles to try to win has to be very precise, because it is about dividing tournaments over the course of a season that can be exciting and exhausting, from a physical point of view, as was the case in 2025. In any case, what the Murcian tennis player makes very clear is that he wants to fight until exhaustion in order to win the one major tournament that is still missing in the already crowded display cabinets: Australian Openthe largest tournament in the early stages of the season.
The Australian title is one of the few titles Alcaraz has not yet won, although his ID card still reminds us that he is only 22 years old. With two titles on clay Roland GarrosAnd two more on the grass Wimbledon And two more on the hard court New Yorkthe hot Australian cement has yet to see Alcaraz crowned two weeks after the first major championship of the year. This time the tournament will start on January 19 and we will see if Alcaraz wins it on February 1, the day the grand final of the men’s singles draw will take place. So far, their four appearances on Australian soil have resulted in winning eleven matches, losing four matches, and qualifying for the quarter-finals (on two occasions) as the highest achievement achieved.
If in January he can win the Australian Open, Alcaraz will set two more records: joining the exclusive list of tennis players to have won all four Grand Slams ever, and doing so as the youngest player in history. In the first section are Perry, Budge, Laver, Emerson, Agassi, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. The second section is held by Rafa Nadal, who achieved it at the age of 24 years and 3 months. If he wins in Melbourne, Alcaraz will leave behind a whole list of famous tennis players who couldn’t win the Big Four, like Manolo. Santana (It didn’t work in Australia) and Connors, Baker, Edberg and Sampras (They never won Roland Garros), plus Villas, Lindell and Welander (Who has never won a title at Wimbledon).
In this section, it’s time to mention Jannik Sinner and Stanislas Wawrinka separately. The former only needs to win on the Parisian clay courts, while Wawrinka, who is still active, needs to win Wimbledon. We will see what happens throughout what will be the ninth season as a professional for the Murcian tennis player, who will in any case start as number one in the rankings, an honor that he will maintain at least for a few weeks, due to the current points difference that separates him from Sinner. with 24 professional awards already in your pocketAlcaraz is ready to continue breaking records, and specifically the number of weeks he spent as number one on the tennis planet is another number that can increase.
A courier is on the horizon
He is currently Novak Djokovic The tennis player who tops the world rankings for the most weeks with 428, followed by Federer (310), Sampras (286), Lendl (270), Connors (268), Nadal (209), and McEnroe (170). Today, Alcaraz has been at the top for 47 weeks, so over the course of the year he can overtake Jim Courier (58), Edberg (72), Hewitt (80) and still be very close to the barrier set by another legend like Agassi (101). Aside from Australia and the weeks in which he was ranked number one in the world, the path to continuing to build his tennis legacy includes winning other tournaments that mark the tennis season, tournaments that will surely appear sooner or later in Alcaraz’s record.
regarding Masters 1000an immediately lower class in terms of relevance to the Grand Slams, although Alcaraz has shown great dominance in these series, he has yet to overcome three of them. To complete the Masters 1000 career, a dream that does not seem like an illusion for the Palmar player, he must win the… Canada, Shanghai and Paris. So far, only Novak Djokovic has managed to accumulate nine Masters 1000 tournaments in history. Alcaraz already owns titles in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Monte Carlo, Rome and Cincinnati, having won the last three in 2025.
Another great milestone that the player has yet to cherish is the title of Mr. V ATP Finals. This event, the grand finale of the tennis court, brings together the eight best players of the year in Turin. The ATP Finals, along with the Australian Open, are being cited as the big piece Carlitos is missing. This tournament requires great perseverance and the ability to control indoor hard court conditions. Although in 2025 he achieved his first title in internal In Rotterdam, complete dominance in this environment remains a challenge. In his history, in 2022 he was unable to compete in the tournament due to injury, in 2023 he reached the semi-finals by losing to Novak Djokovic, in 2024 he failed to advance beyond the group stage and a few weeks ago he lost in the grand final to his eternal rival, the Italian. sin.
Finally, one more challenge for Alcaraz, apart from the gold medal in some Olympic Games (As would Djokovic or Nadal, although he will have to wait until the next Olympics in 2028), is to win the title. Davis Cup With Spain. Winning the Salad Bowl title with our national team is another dream that the Murca native will strive to achieve all year, especially after having to withdraw from the 8-man final due to injury when many expected him to be able to help his teammates win the title in Bologna. Therefore, we will see if the Alcaraz name will resonate at the top, in the coming months, after the finals in Australia, Canada, Shanghai, Paris, Turin and Bologna.