Teenager Carlos Alcaraz continued his blazing rise by demolishing Alexander Zverev in the Madrid final on Sunday, leaving the German to say: “Even though you are still five years old, you are still beating us all.” Two weeks before the start of Roland Garros, the young Spaniard brushed aside his third-ranked foe 6-3, 6-1 in 62 minutes to continue a run that signals tennis has a new power. “It feels great to be able to beat these players. To beat two of the best players in history and then Zverev, the World No.3. He is a great player. I would say this is the best week of my life,” Alcaraz said in his on-court interview. Before the Madrid tournament last year, Alcaraz was ranked 120th in the world. On Monday, he reached No.6.

Second Masters title

On the way, he became the youngest US Open quarter-finalist of the Open era last September, then won his first Masters 1000 title in Miami in early April. Victory on Sunday brought a second Masters 1000 title. The only younger player to reach that milestone was Rafael Nadal, who won in Monte Carlo and Rome when he was 18. Zverev had no doubt where the teenager’s trajectory is heading. “It’s great to see for tennis that we have such a new superstar who is going to win so many Grand Slams and is going to be World No.1,” said the German.