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Alcaraz answers critics with commanding 2025 run and unbeaten sets at US Open

Alcaraz’s 2025 form silences inconsistency claims: majors, streaks and a 90.63% season rate. Read…

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Carlos Alcaraz has offered a forceful rebuttal to questions about his consistency during a 2025 season defined by deep major runs, a series of finals and near-flawless form in New York.

The world No 2 and five-time Grand Slam champion reached his fourth US Open quarter-final this week after a straight-sets victory over Arthur Rinderknech. That result completed a first for Alcaraz: he has, for the first time in his career, reached at least the last eight of all four majors in a single season.

Earlier in 2025 he made the Australian Open quarter-finals, successfully defended his French Open title and reached a third straight Wimbledon final. At 22 years and 11 days he is older only than Pete Sampras (1993) and Rafael Nadal (2008) when achieving the same major-quarter milestone. He has already recorded 21 Grand Slam match wins this year, surpassing his previous best of 19 from last season, and can still finish 2025 with a maximum of 24 major wins.

At Flushing Meadows he stands out among the eight men’s quarter-finalists as the only player yet to drop a set. Over the tournament he has only twice lost more than four games in a set: the second set of his opening match against Reilly Opelka and the first set against Rinderknech. That single-set dominance followed stronger, cleaner performances in the second and third rounds when he dropped a combined 10 games against Mattia Bellucci and 32nd seed Luciano Darderi.

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The broader season record underlines his form. Alcaraz has won six titles this year, matching his 2023 total, and since a March loss to David Goffin in Miami he reached the final of his next seven events through Cincinnati. He beat Lorenzo Musetti to win Monte Carlo, lost to Holger Rune in Barcelona, withdrew from Madrid, beat Jannik Sinner in both the Italian Open and French Open finals, defeated Jiri Lehecka at Queen’s and prevailed in Cincinnati after Sinner retired at Wimbledon.

Since Miami he has won 43 of 45 matches, a 95.56 percent win rate, with only defeats to Rune and Sinner and nine of those wins coming against top-10 players. Before the clay swing he held a 15-4 record and collected his first indoor title at Rotterdam in February. Ahead of his US Open quarter-final against Lehecka, Alcaraz sits on a 90.63 percent win rate for 2025, on track to surpass his previous career bests of 84.42 percent in 2023 and 80.33 percent in 2024.

Analytics & Stats ATP

Djokovic Sets New Standard with 860 Weeks in ATP Top 5

Novak Djokovic begins his record 860th week in the ATP Top 5, overtaking Roger Federer’s mark. Now.

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Novak Djokovic has extended his dominance in the ATP rankings by beginning his 860th career week inside the Top 5, a mark that moves him past Roger Federer’s previous record of 859 weeks.

The player currently listed at No. 4 on the rankings reached the milestone this week, adding another long-term statistical achievement to a resume already dense with records. Official ATP rankings began in August of 1973, and Djokovic’s run now stands as the most career weeks in the Top 5 in ATP history.

The scale of his consistency is underlined by where those weeks were spent. Of the 860 Top 5 weeks, Djokovic has occupied the No. 1 position for 428 weeks, the clear lead in ATP rankings history. Federer is next with 310 weeks at No. 1.

Breaking that total down further highlights Djokovic’s sustained excellence: 49.8 percent of his Top 5 weeks (428) were at No. 1. He has spent 599 weeks in the Top 2, representing 69.7 percent of his Top 5 span. His time in the Top 3 totals 764 weeks, or 88.8 percent, and he has held a Top 4 position for 823 weeks, equal to 95.7 percent of his Top 5 weeks.

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Those numbers reflect a career defined by long stretches at the very top of the sport rather than brief spikes. Reaching 860 weeks in the Top 5 is a cumulative testament to performance across seasons and surfaces, and it establishes a new benchmark for longevity among the modern era’s leading players.

Roger Federer’s long-standing record of 859 weeks has now been overtaken, and the milestone underscores the extraordinary durability of Djokovic’s presence among the elite. And there’s another record on the horizon, too.

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Analytics & Stats Finals

No. 1 Seeds Extend Streak to Seven Straight WTA Titles

No. 1 seeds have won seven straight WTA events, compiling a 35-0 run across seven weeks. Remarkable.

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Elena Rybakina defeated Karolina Muchova to claim the Stuttgart crown, 7-5, 6-1, and Marta Kostyuk beat Veronika Podrez for the Rouen title, 6-3, 6-4. Those finals completed another chapter in an unusual run on the women’s tour: top seeds have won the last seven WTA events in a row.

The run began in early March with Aryna Sabalenka at Indian Wells and has continued through seven tournaments and seven weeks. Top seeds are 35-0 over the last seven weeks at WTA events: Sabalenka 6-0 at Indian Wells and 6-0 in Miami; Pegula 5-0 in Charleston; Bouzkova 5-0 in Bogota; Andreeva 4-0 in Linz; Rybakina 4-0 in Stuttgart; and Kostyuk 5-0 in Rouen.

Those 35 consecutive wins did not all come without drama. In the first tournament of the streak, Indian Wells, Sabalenka faced a match point against Rybakina down 6-5 in the third-set tie-break in the final before sneaking out the win, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6). In Stuttgart, Rybakina saved two match points in the third set, one down 5-4 and another down 6-5 in the breaker, to survive Leylah Fernandez in the quarterfinals, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-6 (6).

There were also a string of three-set victories elsewhere, including several from Pegula in Charleston before she closed out that event in straight sets. At each tournament the top seed has reached the finish line, producing an unbroken run of title-clinching performances by No. 1 seeds across the most recent slate of WTA events.

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CHAMPIONS AT THE LAST SEVEN WTA EVENTS:

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Analytics & Stats

Cirstea reaches 20 tour-level wins faster than ever in final season

Cirstea reached 20 tour-level wins in 2026 faster than ever, after announcing 2026 as her last year

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Sorana Cirstea reached a career milestone on Friday night, logging her 20th tour-level victory of 2026 and doing so earlier in the season than at any point in her two-decade career. The achievement came amid a campaign that has grown stronger since she announced in the off-season that 2026 would be her final year on tour.

Cirstea recorded the landmark win by defeating Anna Bondar 7-6 (2), 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the clay-court event in Rouen, France. That victory pushed her to 20 tour-level victories for the season faster than she ever previously managed. Her prior earliest 20th win came in 2013, when she reached the mark during the grass-court season in Birmingham.

The Romanian’s form this year has been notable. Now 20-6 in 2026, Cirstea has advanced to her second WTA semifinal of the season. Earlier in the year she captured the fourth WTA title of her career at the indoor hard-court event in Cluj-Napoca, Romania in February, which was also her first career WTA title on home soil. Observers traced the momentum back to a strong second half of 2025, after which she made the decision to make 2026 her swan song on the circuit.

The Rouen quarterfinal win underlined a consistency that has defined Cirstea’s campaign: effective conversion of tight moments, shown in a first-set tiebreak, followed by a more decisive second set. The result keeps her on course for another deep run at the clay-court event and extends a season that has already produced a title, multiple semifinals and a personal-best pace to 20 tour-level victories.

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As the season unfolds, Cirstea’s earlier-than-ever arrival at this milestone will remain one of the defining storylines of her final year on tour.

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