Carlos Alcaraz’s 2023 statistics make for prettier reading than last year’s figures despite some suggesting his form has dropped off this season.
After finishing the 2022 campaign as the year-end No 1 with one Grand Slam to his name, Alcaraz was second behind Novak Djokovic in the end-of-season ATP Rankings this season while he also picked up a second Grand Slam trophy.
The initial reaction is that the Spaniard’s standards slipped a bit when compared to the 2022 campaign, but further analysis shows a different picture as he enjoyed better results in eight of the 12 big tournaments he played this year.
Titles and Finals: 5-7 v 6-8
The 21-year-old lifted one more title in 2023 compared to last year while he also played in one more final.
Alcaraz won Wimbledon, the Indian Wells Open, Madrid Open, Barcelona Open, Queen’s Club Championship and the Argentina Open while he finished runner-up in Rio and Cincinnati.
Last year he lifted titles at the US Open, the Miami Open, Madrid Open, Rio Open and Barcelona Open, and was a finalist in Hamburg and Croatia.
Grand Slams: 16–3 v 17–2
Alcaraz played in all four majors last year and lost in the third round of the Australian Open, quarter-final of the French Open, fourth round at Wimbledon and won the US Open.
This year he missed the Australian Open, but went one better at the French Open as he reached the semi-final while he won Wimbledon. The US Open was the only Grand Slam where he didn’t improve as he failed to defend his title, exiting in the semi-final.
ATP Finals: 0-0 v 2-2
The Spaniard didn’t compete at last year’s ATP Finals while this year he won two out of three round-robin matches before losing in the semi-final.
ATP Masters 1000: 19–5 v 25–6
The Spaniard played in seven ATP Masters 1000 tournaments last year – winning two of them – while this year he played in eight events and once again won two titles.
He successfully defended his Madrid Open title while he also won the Indian Wells Open and finished runner-up at the Cincinnati Masters.
Indian Wells (semi-final/win), Miami Open (win/semi-final), Monte Carlo Masters (second round/absent), Madrid Open (win/win), Italian Open (absent/third round), Canadian Open (second round/quarter-final), Cincinnati Masters (quarter-final/final), Shanghai Masters (no event/fourth round), Paris Masters (quarter-final/second round).
ATP 500 events: 17-3 v 18-2
Alcaraz won the Rio Open and Barcelona Open last year while in 2023 he successfully defended his Barcelona Open crown and also lifted the ATP.
His only two defeats in ATP 500 events this year came in the final of the Rio Open and the semi-final of the China Open.
ATP 250: 3-1 v 4-0
The Spaniard played only one ATP 250 event in both 2022 and 2023 and last year he lost the Umag final against Sinner while this year he won the Argentina Open.
Carlos Alcaraz 2022 v 2023 win-loss: 57–13 v 65–12
Despite missing the start of the 2023 season due to injury, Alcaraz ended up playing more matches this year compared to last year and he still finished with a better win-loss percentage as last year he was on 81% and this year he finished with 84%.
Rankings Points: 6,820 v 8,855
Carlos Alcaraz finished the 2022 season with 6,820 points as he became the youngest-ever year-end world No 1, but despite his seemingly inferior 2023 campaign, he picked up 8,855 points.
And yes, he competed in the same number of events as in 2022 as he entered 17 tournaments.
The key difference was Alcaraz’s 2023 Wimbledon title run as he earned 2,000 points while last year no points were awarded at the All England Club. Even if you remove this year’s Wimbledon points, he would still finish this year with more points (6,855).
Of course, Novak Djokovic was just miles ahead of everyone else as he ended up with 11,245 points on the back of winning three Grand Slams.
READ MORE: Carlos Alcaraz makes major schedule announcement for 2024 tennis season
