Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz raced to the Madrid Open title on Sunday to cap off an incredible week, brushing aside German Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-1 in 62 minutes.

The victory in just over an hour took the 19-year-old’s winning streak to 10 matches. Alcaraz beat Rafael Nadal and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic on his way to the final – a first such instance in a clay court tournament – and will climb to No. 6 in the world on Monday.

In the post-match interactions, Zverev started off saying what a lot of people are. “Right now, you are the best player in the world,” the world No 3 told the teenager.

“This tournament is special for me because it’s a tournament I came and watched when I was seven or eight,” said Alcaraz.

Here’s a look at the winning moment:

Alcaraz became the first player to beat three Top-4 players at an ATP Masters 1000 event since David Nalbandian swept Djokovic, Nadal and Roger Federer at 2007 Madrid (Hard court). With the victory on Sunday, Alcaraz became youngest player to win five ATP tour titles since Nadal won seven titles by the same age in 2004-05. The teenager is also nly the sixth player in the Open Era to win his first five tour-level finals (since 1968).

Data check: Carlos Alcaraz’s historic back-to-back wins against Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic

Alcaraz broke in the sixth game and comfortably held his serve to take the first set.

The German second seed, had come into the final with a nine-match winning streak in Madrid, but, after holding in the first game of the second set, he unravelled.

Alcaraz galloped through the next five games and into a 0-40 lead, Zverev saved three match points but then double-faulted on deuce and again on the fourth match point.

The German saved three but then served a fifth double fault of the match to hand Alcaraz victory.

“This is tennis,” said Zverev. “You cannot be perfect every day.”

“Even though I lost quite badly today this is still my favourite court in the world,” added Zverev, a champion in the Spanish capital in 2018 and 2021.

With AFP inputs

Stats courtesy ATP Media