Carlos Alcaraz eclipsed a Rafael Nadal Grand Slam milestone as he cruised into Round 3 of the Australian Open on Wednesday.
The Spaniard dropped just five games against Yoshihito Nishioka, beating the Japanese 6-0, 6-1, 6-4 to set up a third-round match against Nuno Borges.
It was another sublime performance from Alcaraz, who has dropped just 12 games in total across his opening two matches – following a 6-1, 7-5, 6-1 win over Alexander Shevchenko earlier this week.
Alcaraz made his Grand Slam main draw debut at the Australian Open four years ago aged 17, and this will be his final major before turning 22 in May.
His victory over Nishioka was his 26th hard court Grand Slam match win before that birthday, eclipsing the total attained by his idol Rafael Nadal.
Former world No 1 Nadal won 25 hard court Slam matches before his 22nd birthday, with his final major before that point being the 2008 Australian Open – where he was a beaten semi-finalist.
Alcaraz also moves above Roddick (25) to move fifth on the all-time list – though he could become the record holder by the end of the Australian Open.
If he wins his third-round match against Borges, he will match Marat Safin (27), and if he progresses to the fourth round, he will match Pete Sampras and Lleyton Hewitt (28).
Alcaraz’s most notable success at a hard court major was his epic 2022 US Open triumph, where he beat the likes of Marin Cilic, Jannik Sinner, and Casper Ruud to lift the first of four Grand Slam titles.
The Spaniard was also a US Open quarter-finalist in 2021 and a semi-finalist in 2023, with his best result to date at the Australian Open being his quarter-final run in 2024.
What makes Alcaraz’s standing in this statistic even more impressive is that he missed the 2023 Australian Open due to injury while he was ranked No 1 in the world.
It is not impossible to think that, had he played that tournament, he would already hold this record.
