Well, nothing, the wise men of tennis already do calculations.
Well, this weekend, Carlos Alcaraz (19) could become the youngest ATP circuit leader in history, a privilege that Lleyton Hewitt (20 years, 8 months and 23 days, in 2001) has enjoyed until now.
We will not say that Hewitt was a one hit wonder (he was going to be the world leader for eighty weeks; he would win a title at Wimbledon and another at the US Open, and he also reached a final in Melbourne), but it is true that his government he would soon be ousted by Roger Federer and definitely dwarfed by Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
They are the members of the Big Three.
Alcaraz appears at a different time, precisely in the fall of the Big Three and also in the middle of the Next Gen crisis. Medvedev has broken down in New York, lacking games as he is on account of the veto against Russian athletes, Zverev is still sorry for his broken ankle in the last Roland Garros and Tsitsipás, Auger-Aliassime, De Miñaur and Shapovalov do not finish exploding.
In the wake of events, Alcaraz is growing, a reality that some already pointed out months ago but that has accelerated dramatically in recent times.
At the beginning of 2021, he was 141st in the world ranking.
In September he already stormed the Top 50 (38th).
And now?
Now he glimpses the world leadership of the ATP circuit, something never seen in a tennis player of his age, a citizen who has hardly had the opportunity to decide in an electoral process and wears the L on the rear windshield of his car (if he went to university, Alcaraz would be starting his sophomore year): if he were to win the US Open title on Sunday (it would be his first major), he would do so at 19 years and 130 days, considerably younger than Hewitt.
The data is historical, not unexpected, since the same wise men have already been anticipating this possibility for months.
Alcaraz, gamer, versatile, fresh air that brings drop shots, balloons and unexpected winners, is expected to have a magnificent future, the same, in fact, as the Italian Jannik Sinner, the Murcian's generational partner (Sinner is a year older ) who will appear on the other side of the net this morning (last shift of the day, around three o'clock at night in Spain), in the quarterfinals, and who has already cut him off twice in 2022.
(He had done it in the Wimbledon round of 16, with Sinner winning in four sets, and in the Umag final, with Sinner winning in three sets).
This match will come in the quarterfinals, but it could become a classic final in the coming years, like Borg-McEnroe or Federer-Nadal.
