Carlos Alcaraz: the unstoppable rise of tennis’ youngest-ever No.1
Two years ago, Carlos Alcaraz had never reached an ATP tour final.
Having just broken into the top 100, the then 18-year-old Spaniard was a relatively unknown name on the tennis scene, just beginning his shift from the junior game into the big leagues.
Fast forward just 24 months to July 2023 and rather a lot has changed: he is World No.1 — the youngest ever — and has racked up an astonishing 12 titles on the ATP tour, including a four-set US Open triumph in 2022 that saw him becoming the seventh youngest player in history to win a Grand Slam.
It’s not bad timing, as he steps onto the world stage at Wimbledon. No man other than Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Sir Andy Murray has won Wimbledon since 2002 and while various players have been tipped as the “next generation” in the men’s game, none so far have meaningfully challenged the dominance of the Big Three of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic since Murray fell down the rankings after a hip injury. Could Alcaraz finally break that cycle?
Tennis insiders certainly believe he has a good chance. Alcaraz’s US Open victory at 19 made him the first ever teenage World No.1 since the rankings were created nearly 50 years ago. “It’s crazy for me,” he said after his US Open victory. “I never thought I was going to achieve something like this at 19 years old. Everything came so fast.”
Alcaraz secured his first grass-court title when he won at Queen’s last month
/ Getty Images for LTANow a charismatic, smiley and handsome 20-year-old, Alcaraz — ‘Carlitos’ to his friends and ‘Charlie’ when talking about himself — has quickly become a fan favourite amongst tennis fanatics beginning to preemptively mourn the end sport’s golden era.
Perhaps it is this charm, star quality and boyish grin that has also caught the eye of the fashion world — Vogue called him “the new king of tennis” when they interviewed him about his love of baggy jeans and vintage sneakers earlier this year, and he was announced as Louis Vuitton’s latest ambassador just last week (the chiselled abs probably helped, too).
With a fresh victory at Queen’s under his belt, Alcaraz arrives at SW19 as the number one seed and favourite to take home the trophy, so would this be his chance to break into the Big Three?
From his humble beginnings to his meteoric rise into the record books, here’s everything you need to know.
Humble beginnings and some unlikely helpers
Alcaraz was coached by his father, who himself was in Spain’s top 40
/ Murcia Club de TenisAlcaraz might be the first in his family to reach the upper echelons of the world tennis rankings, but it could well have been his father Carlos Alcaraz Snr or grandfather Carlos Alcaraz Snr Snr who found themselves taking to Centre Court before him, had they had the same (dweet) stroke of luck as their 20-year-old son and grandson.
Both men were talented tennis players with buckets of promise, but sadly lacked the funding to make it into the top of what is a famously expensive sport. Alcaraz started life this way too: born and raised alongside his three brothers, Álvaro, Jaime and Sergio in Murcia, on Spain’s Iberian Peninsula, he first picked up a tennis racket at just four years old and supposedly used to cry whenever he was told to stop playing and go home for dinner.
Alcaraz sported the Posters Reina logo on his tennis shirts from aged 10
/ Getty ImagesHis father, Carlos Alcaraz Senior, had once been in Spain’s tennis top 40 but opted to run the tennis academy that his own father had set up when he failed to progress due to a lack of funding.
A young Alcaraz was coached by his father (his father was a tennis coach and administrator at his local club, El Palmar; his mother was raising Alcaraz and his three brothers, who are all passionate about tennis), and while his talent was never in doubt, the family struggled to find the money to fund what is often an incredibly expensive career.
Help soon came from the unlikeliest of places. Alfonso Lopes Rueda, the tennis-loving president of local cake and yoghurt company Postres Reina, took an interest in the young star and helped fund him through his early tournaments. In exchange, Alcaraz sported the company’s logo on the shirts he has wore during his matches from the age of 10.
The company’s support sustained Alcaraz through his early teens, allowing him to access the best coaching in his region and travel to the most competitive tournaments.
Alcaraz was later signed to international sports management group IMG at the age of 11, and from the age of 13 he signed a racket deal with Babolat. But the real magic happened in 2018, when he began working with Juan Carlos Ferrero. At the time, the former Spanish No.1 had been working with Alexander Zverev, but the two parted ways and Ferrero instead took on the project of coaching Alcaraz.
Ferrero retired in 2012, but he has widely been considered a crucial player in Alcaraz’ success, as both a coach and a mentor. “Juan Carlos [is a] very important person for me,” Alcaraz said last year.
Alcaraz in a practice session with ex-coach Juan Carlos Ferrero
/ Getty Images“On the professional side, on the personal side… [he’s] helped me a lot. When we are together, we will talk about everything in life, everything in our sport and about football, as well. Juan Carlos, I consider him a coach and a friend as well. So I can talk to him about everything in [my] personal life, too.”
Perhaps it was this mentorship that aided the young player’s attitude as well as his sporting prowess. As a child, Alcaraz was known for his tempestuous personality, throwing his rackets in anger, bursting into tears and refusing to leave the court after losses. Today he is better known for his smile, even when he is losing — an outlook change he also partially credits to his psychologist, Isabel Balaguer.
“When I was younger, I was a totally different person,” he said earlier this year. “Probably I didn’t enjoy it as I’m enjoying right now. I was always mad, throwing the racket, complaining a lot. It was different. I started to calm myself, control my emotions. I started to enjoy playing tennis, enjoy a lot on the court.”
Today, Alcaraz’ team consists of PTs, therapists, doctors and trainers, but he remains close to the El Palmar community he grew up in, still visiting at weekends and hanging out with the same friends he did as a child, sitting with them in the park or playing board games like chess — a keen hobby of his outside tennis.
“I love chess,” he told Vogue earlier this year. “Having to concentrate, to play against someone else, strategy—having to think ahead. I think all of that is very similar to the tennis court. You have to intuit where the other player is going to send the ball, you have to move ahead of time, and try to do something that will make him uncomfortable. So I play it a lot.”
Off-court, the tennis No. 1 is also a keen philanthropist (he has a charity to help people with Downs Syndrome and auctioned his US Open-winning trainers to raise money for local Downs charity Assido) and is a passionate fan of fashion and Real Madrid. Given his beginnings in the sport, he probably considers cake pretty highly on that list of passions, too.
Power, athleticism and ‘lightning in a bottle’
Alcaraz has the rare combination of relative height and athleticism
/ Getty ImagesThere has been one question on everyone’s lips since Alcaraz began to dominate the men’s game: is he the next Rafael Nadal?
While the comparison is understandable — both grew up playing on the red clay of Spain, are incredibly athletic and are immensely likeable — Alcaraz’s game is better described as an alchemical mixture of all the characteristics that have made the Big Three shine.
While he primarily employs an aggressive big-hitting baseline style of play, with an emphasis on winners from his forehand, he is also known for his deft use of the drop shot. And, even though clay may be his bread and butter, his wins at the US Open and Queen’s have demonstrated he is a fearless all-surface player.
“He hits the ball harder and with more topspin than even Nadal,” Andrew Castle former British number one said to the Telegraph. “In real life it takes your breath away. When he plays – and when you see those muscles live – there is electricity in the air. The sense of occasion he brings is off-the-chart brilliant.”
The 20-year-old has drawn frequent comparison with his fellow countryman Rafael Nadal
/ Getty ImagesHe also has the rare combination of relative height (he’s six foot tall) and athleticism, with mesmerisingly acrobatic footwork, allowing him to attack with precision at even the most crucial moments. “It is what makes Carlos special,” Ferrero told the New York Times last year. “Many players like to compete but not so many look forward to playing the biggest points. Carlos does, and I think that is a very good sign for the future.”
Federer’s ex-coach Paul Annaconne describes Alcaraz’s game as “electric, like lightning in a bottle” and once called him the most complete teenager he had seen.
Sneakers, Louis Vuitton and *that* Wimbledon bucket hat
Last week — less than seven days after securing his victory at Queen’s — Alcaraz chalked up a win of a slightly different nature.
He was named Louis Vuitton’s latest ambassador, with the French fashion house saying it was “delighted to welcome Carlos on this collaborative adventure ahead.”
Alcaraz has spoken in the past about his interest in fashion, particularly baggy jeans and vintage Nike sneakers (he is sponsored by Nike and became the face of Calvin Klein’s underwear campaign earlier this year).
He has spoken of his admiration for how the late Virgil Abloh mixed sportswear with luxury and for Pharrell Williams’ first collection at Louis Vuitton. After discussing the possibility of branching out into the sartorial realm with one of his agents, the conversation with Louis Vuitton developed quickly.
“For me, Louis Vuitton is really a brand that I have always looked to and when the opportunity to work with the team arose, it instantly felt like a perfect partnership,” Alcaraz told Vogue. “I was really invested from the start.
“I really want to know more about it and be more into fashion… I think it’s a very interesting world and it excites me.”
He has also been noticed by none other than Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, herself an avid tennis player. “Carlos is very charming and very shy — both qualities that belie his rather monumental presence on the tennis court, where he is very fast and very powerful and quite charismatic,” she told the Telegraph this week.
“Off the court, I know he’s been quietly paying attention to fashion, and I think we’re all excited to see what he and Louis Vuitton might do together — it’s a great match!” she added.
While Alcaraz has said that his personal style is still evolving, he has already delighted audiences with his SW19 fashion, notably a bucket hat he wore to a media round at the All England Club last week. The official Instagram of the Championships even shared a picture of him sporting the headgear, writing “We need to talk about @carlitosalcarazz’s bucket hat”. Yes Wimbledon, yes we do.
A newbie to grass — so could he beat Djokovic?
Despite only having played 11 matches on grass in his entire career, Alcaraz is still the favourite going into this year’s Wimbledon.
Novak Djokovic is the most obvious barrier to Alcaraz’s success
/ AFP via Getty ImagesAfter getting to the fourth round at SW19 last year, he said: “Now I’m thinking that myself could be a great player on grass. I got a lot of experience [this year] playing on grass at Wimbledon… But I would say I’m going to be a great player here on grass.”
While there were some doubts last year about his experience on the surface, his victory on the grass at Queen’s is testament to his adaptability.
Djokovic beat Alcaraz in the semi-final of the French Open this year
/ AFP via Getty ImagesHowever, it certainly won’t be plain sailing. Djokovic is the most obvious barrier to Alcaraz’s success: he beat the Spaniard in the semi final of the French Open earlier this year, on his path to clinching a record 23rd Grand Slam.
But Alcaraz has said he is confident going into the tournament. “I see Wimbledon as the most beautiful tournament on the tour,” he said after his triumph at Queen’s.
“It’s a tournament that I really wanted to win someday. And I have a lot of confidence to make that dream possible this year.
“I just played 11 matches in my career on grass, so I have to get more experience, more hours. But obviously after beating amazing guys, and with the level that I played, I consider myself one of the favourites to win Wimbledon.”
