Carlos Alcaraz: How Australian Open champion made history as youngest to win career Grand Slam

Watching Alcaraz is, for the most part, like watching sunshine personified.

There is a carefree joy in his shot-making; the huge forehand that goes blasting through every surface, the drop shots and volleys that few would dare try.

Then there is Alcaraz himself. He runs around the court with a puppyish enthusiasm, a huge smile never far from his face. The sleeveless shirts, the cries of ‘vamos!’, the ill-advised buzzcut in New York all add to the theatre.

Alcaraz plays by the motto passed down to him by his grandfather – cabeza, corazon, cojones. Head, heart, balls. A reminder to be brave in the big moments, to truly go for what you want. It has served him well throughout his career.

Tennis, Alcaraz told Vogue, external in 2023, is in his blood. His great-uncle built the club in Murcia where generations of the family would play. His father, who played until he could no longer afford to, was a director there. Alcaraz’s siblings all play tennis, with eldest brother Alvaro acting as hitting partner and unofficial barber.

Given his first racquet aged four, Alcaraz spent much of his time there. His first coach, Kiko Navarro, told BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller that the young Alcaraz got angry a lot.

“When he was a child he broke a lot of racquets and I had to take him crying to the hotel or home,” he said in 2024, while Alcaraz described himself as “a bad loser”.

IMG agent Albert Molina watched an 11-year-old Alcaraz play a Futures tournament in Murcia. “You could already see his winning character, bravery and daring,” he told the ATP Tour website in 2021., external

“He had such a variety that he would often get it wrong. In one point he would approach the net, open up angles, play a slice, a lob…”

Sound familiar?