Q: Is there a current player who proves the point?
Carlos Alcaraz is the cleanest example on tour right now. By his early twenties he had already won two Wimbledon titles on grass in 2023 and 2024, two French Open titles on clay in 2024 and 2025, and two US Open titles on hard courts in 2022 and 2025, becoming the youngest man ever to win multiple Grand Slam titles on all three surfaces. He is only the fourth man in the Open Era to manage multiple titles on every surface, joining Mats Wilander, Nadal, and Novak Djokovic, and he added the Australian Open in early 2026 to complete the career Grand Slam. A player with Alcaraz's movement and shot-making would have been considered a clay natural in the Muster era. Instead he is simply considered the best player in the world, full stop, because the tour no longer forces a choice between dominating one surface and competing seriously on the others.
