Tennis players start playing as kids, work their way up through juniors, and then attempt to become the best in the world.
Some of these players experience success quickly while others grind and work for years to climb the rankings.
Here is the list of the five youngest players to reach No. 1 in the world.
Spoiler alert: none of the Big 3 players (Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal) made this list.
From “oldest” to youngest, the players and their ages when they did it are as follows.
5. Andy Roddick, 2003, 21 years and 65 days
Andy Roddick, the 2003 U.S. Open champion, grabbed the No. 1 ranking in the same year.
Roddick was a mixture of generations; he emerged after Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras were at their peak but before Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal reached theirs.
With his signature big serve, he injected excitement into American tennis at a time it desperately needed it, and he is the last American to win the U.S. Open.
4. John McEnroe, 1980, 21 years and 16 days
In 1980 while John McEnroe was making his mark as the bad boy of tennis, he was also winning a lot of tournaments which vaulted him to No. 1 in the world for the first time in his career.
He won 7 Grand Slam singles titles and 9 Grand Slam doubles titles.
All generations of tennis fans know American tennis legend, Johnny Mac.
3. Marat Safin, 2000, 20 years and 298 days
Russian-born Marat Safin is not quite the household name that Roddick and McEnroe are.
He became the World No. 1 in 2000 shortly after beating Pete Sampras in the 2000 U.S. Open.
Safin would only win one more Grand Slam in his career, and that was five years later at the Australian Open.
2. Lleyton Hewitt, 2001, 20 years and 268 days
One year after Safin, Australian Lleyton Hewitt seized the number one ranking with a 2001 U.S. Open win that was the first of his two Grand Slam singles wins.
The other was the 2002 Wimbledon.
Hewitt was known for running down every ball and never giving up.
1. Carlos Alcaraz, 2022, 19 years and 129 days
The youngest World No. 1 did it while he was still a teenager and is the only male player to accomplish that.
He is 2022 U.S. Open Champion Carlos Alcaraz.
His game is powerful and seems to have few flaws.
Alcaraz did not play in the 2023 Australian Open because of injury so he lost the No. 1 ranking.
He is back on the tour and will certainly be competing to get it back soon.
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