Can Carlos Alcaraz finally win the Australian Open?

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Carlos Alcaraz has never won the Australian Open, nor has he played in the final of the tournament. In fact, the world No. 1 has yet to make a semifinal appearance at the year's first Grand Slam.

It seems ludicrous. Unfathomable, even. Surely, a quick Wikipedia check will straighten this one out.

After all, few tennis players in history have enjoyed a 40-month run of dominance quite like Alcaraz. Since August 2022, the magnetic Spaniard has won Wimbledon twice, the French Open twice, the US Open twice and prevailed in eight Masters 1000 events. At 19, he became the ATP's youngest-ever world No. 1, and he has amassed a staggering $50 million in prize money -- a figure already good enough for fifth place on tennis' all-time highest earners' list.

But despite all of Alcaraz's accolades, the Australian Open title remains a stark omission from his rsum. Not only has he failed to lift the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, but he also has never really come close to conquering the field Down Under -- a contrast to how he has fared at tennis' three other majors. At Wimbledon, he has won 89% of matches played. At the French Open? Again, 89%. How about the US Open? You guessed it: 89%. Heading into this year's Australian Open, Alcaraz's win rate was "just" 73%.

"I'm hungry for the title," Alcaraz said on the eve of the tournament. "This is my main goal for this year. The first tournament, the main goal. I just really want to perform better than I did previous years."

To this point in his career, Alcaraz's most memorable match at Melbourne Park remains his third-round tie in 2022 against eventual semifinalist Matteo Berrettini. The then-18-year-old Alcaraz turned in a Herculean performance under blazing sunshine on Rod Laver Arena, in a match that went to a fifth-set decider and lasted more than four hours. And though Alcaraz would fall agonizingly short, it was a glimpse into the outrageous talent that would soon become the benchmark of the tour.

But since then, every Alcaraz trip back to Australia has either ended in severe disappointment or been canceled before it began.

In 2023, as the freshly minted world No. 1, a devastated Alcaraz was forced to withdraw from the tournament after suffering a hamstring injury in the final weeks of his training camp. He returned in 2024 to much fanfare, but was upset by an ultra-efficient Alexander Zverev in a one-sided quarterfinal that failed to showcase him at his best.

Last year's campaign was also derailed in the quarterfinals, losing to 10-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic in four sets.

"It's tricky not to have gone further than quarterfinals here in Australia because I feel like I'm playing good tennis here. The last two years I've been playing really good tennis," Alcaraz said earlier in the week. "Zverev and Djokovic ... it's unusual players you play against in quarterfinal if you are [ranked] one or two in the world."

That loss to Djokovic spurred Alcaraz to the most successful season of his career. He claimed eight titles, including the US Open and French Open crowns, reached nine consecutive tournament finals between April and September and won a career-best 71 of 80 matches played.

Alcaraz has carried that form into this fortnight's event at Melbourne Park, having breezed through to the fourth round without dropping a set. His round of 32 tie against France's Corentin Moutet was a two-hour showcase of his ridiculous skill, craft and athleticism, a match that left his seeded opponent laughing to himself -- and void of answers.