Carlos Alcaraz Garfia, the reigning European 16 & Under champion and current Tennis Europe Junior Tour #1, took another important step forward on Tuesday by becoming the first 15-year old to beat a Top 200 player on the ATP circuit in a decade.
The impressive result came at the ATP Challenger event being played in his home town of Murcia, where Alcaraz took down his 140th-ranked Spanish compatriot Pedro Martinez. It’s not the first time that Alcaraz has scored a big win in his home club – in 2017, he led the Spanish 14 & Under European Summer Cups team to victory.
The home crowd now eagerly awaits his third round match, where he will take on another young promise in the form of Rudolf Molleker, also a former European Champion. The 18-year-old German was a semifinalist in last week’s Mouratoglou Open Challenger and won the 14&U European Junior Championships in 2014.
In further good news for Alcaraz Garfia, Tennis Europe confirmed this week that the promising youngster will be offered a wild card to compete in the main draw of the $25,000 ITF World Tennis Tour event in Doboj, Bosnia & Herzegovina, in early May. The wild card is part on ongoing effort from Tennis Europe to assist promising players with the transition from the Tennis Europe Junior Tour to the ITF World Tennis Tour circuits.