The 'brutal charisma' and staggering game of Carlos Alcaraz

CARLOS ALCARAZ REMEMBERS traveling to Croatia for his first tournament outside of Spain. Even back then, in his own 10-year-old way, he felt in his bones that he belonged on a tennis court. He felt awe when fans — which mostly consisted of family members and friends of the kids playing in the tournament — lined up to watch him play. He felt confident, like he could show them the variety of shots he had amassed in his back pocket at such a young age.

He lost in the final, but he came back home to El Palmar, Murcia, a changed boy. Until then, his life was standard in many ways. He went to school, had homework and spent time with his parents and three brothers. He had been playing tennis since he was 4 years old — he’d hung a poster of Federer, his idol, on his bedroom wall — but after his trip to Croatia, he knew that he wanted tennis to become a bigger part of his future.

“I fell in love with the game,” Alcaraz says.

Carlos Sr., who was a former player and a tennis coach, understood his son’s desire immediately. But money was a concern. Traveling abroad for tournaments cost thousands of euros, and that was not something his family could swing often. A businessman from Murcia, Alfonso Lopez Rueda, sponsored Carlos’ trip to Croatia and decided to continue helping him until further opportunities presented themselves.

Ferrero, who in early 2018 had ended his coaching relationship with Zverev, was looking for his next pupil. He had seen Alcaraz as a 12-year-old in a tournament in Spain. So when Alcaraz’s parents and Molina requested a meeting with him, he was excited. After his experience with Zverev, who was already an accomplished player, a chance to coach a player from the beginning of his professional career appealed to Ferrero.

When they met, something clicked. Alcaraz’s parents felt like they could trust Ferrero, Molina says, and they believed Ferrero’s experience as both a former world No. 1 and a coach of a top-5 player could help boost Alcaraz’s career.

“To work with a prodigious talent — one who is not ready yet — but you have to [give] everything to make [all of it] work together, that’s a great opportunity,” Ferrero says to Sport365Day.

Ferrero signed on to coach Alcaraz in 2018 — and has spent most days since with the teenager, shaping his life on and off the court.

Sooner than either expected, a champion took form.

“No te la comas toda,” Nadal says to Alcaraz, pulling his mask down and smiling. Don’t eat all of it. He grabs his hand and gives Alcaraz a hug.

It’s May 5, 2021 — Carlos Alcaraz’s 18th birthday. Moments before, he had lost in straight sets (winning just three games) to Nadal, his countryman and one of the greatest ever to play the sport. Alcaraz had watched Nadal play all his life — Rafa won his first French Open title when Alcaraz was just 2 years old.

Alcaraz hadn’t been able to muster much resistance against Nadal, but it was his first time playing one of the Big 3 — that, too, on his 18th birthday — and that was a coming of age moment in and of itself.

In May 2021, Alcaraz was not ready to beat Nadal — few are — but he had made huge strides just three years after he began working with Ferrero. Since 2018, the former world No. 1 traveled with Alcaraz to almost every tournament he played, including the minor ATP Challengers and ITF events. Ferrero provided consistency — and more importantly, a perspective from having beaten some of the best players on tour, including Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. Ferrero sat with Alcaraz and drew out a road map that included working on different aspects of his game, improving his physical shape as his body grew, and gaining confidence in himself.

Soon, Alcaraz began to see results. His opponents did, too.

In May, one year after facing Nadal on his 18th birthday, Alcaraz remarkably found himself in the same situation: at the Madrid Open against the king of clay. The only difference: A year’s worth of growth and training. After splitting the first two sets, Alcaraz made his way to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror, splashing water on his face. He had tweaked his ankle in a nasty fall in the second set, forcing a medical timeout. His ankle seemed fine, but he had lost his momentum, dropping a lopsided second set 6-1. In the bathroom, he looked in the mirror and said, “OK, Charlie (he wants to be called Charlie or Carlitos as he finds Carlos to be “too serious.”), if you’re not going to pull out, think about playing, don’t think on your ankle. Don’t think on nothing else, fight till the very last ball, because you know that you are capable of doing it.”

When the third set began, he was an entirely different player — making Nadal come to the net with his well-timed drop shots and freezing him with his powerful forehand passing shots. He wrapped up the third set in just over a half-hour (the duration of the entire match was 2 hours and 28 minutes).

Just one year earlier, the teenager had no answers against Nadal. He hadn’t mastered his shot selection, his body looked spindly, and more importantly, he didn’t have the experience to believe that he could keep up with a legend. A year later, his muscles bulged in his thighs and arms, his shot selection seemed impeccable, and his confidence spilled out of his pores. After that first encounter he told himself that the next time he played Nadal, he would win a set. And, he did, in the 2022 Indian Wells semifinals. That day, he told himself he would win two sets against Nadal the next time. And he did in Madrid, winning two sets and the match.

“It’s crazy how quickly he adapts,” Ferrero says. “Both on and off the court.”

CARLOS ALCARAZ SCOOCHES into a chair in his hotel room in Rome a few days after his Madrid Open victory. He’s wearing a bright orange T-shirt embroidered with a smiling koala next to a tennis racket. He has several interviews set up for the day, some with Spanish news organizations and some with global news media. He is peering into the Zoom screen with a big smile on his face and thanks me profusely for taking the time to talk to him. People who know him often describe him as humble, and I get a heavy dose of it. I ask him about it and he says, promptly, “The most important thing is to be a good person — to ball kids, to fans, to all — before I am a good player.”

Which means he will stay back to sign an extra ball, pose for an extra photo. If he can make one more fan happy, he will. Which is what he did, after he won the Miami Open and the cameramen had packed up their equipment. For an hour, he signed balls, posed for photos and responded to every fan’s request.

“I really enjoy watching Alcaraz play,” Lopez told the Spanish newspaper ABC prior to this year’s Madrid Open. “He has a brutal charisma, a way of playing that engages, that creates fans.” Djokovic shared in an interview at the Madrid Open that his 7-year-old son, who had adored Nadal for so long, had a new favorite player: Carlos Alcaraz.

Even though he has yet to win a Grand Slam, the world has pegged him as the next Nadal, but those comparisons don’t ring true to Alcaraz. If anything, he thinks his game resembles Federer’s — aggressive, always on the offensive with a touch that freezes even the best in the world.

“I don’t want to be the next Rafa or Roger,” he says. “I want to be the new Carlitos.”

The differences between a 19-year-old Alcaraz and the aging Big 3 are striking. Alcaraz exudes energy at the fourth hour of play, while Nadal has spoken about the chronic pain he is playing with. Combine the power of Alcaraz’s youth with his wide grin, his willingness to take the extra time to make fans happy and his ability to compare his game to Federer’s without sounding obnoxious, and a captivating global star emerges. The force is strong with this one.

The biggest change in Alcaraz this year is that he has built up his confidence — believing he has the ability to win against Nadal or Djokovic, Ferrero says. Alcaraz might be surprised by his results, but he doesn’t walk on the court without the absolute conviction that he could beat his opponent. Not that a win is guaranteed, but that it is possible.

“He is coming in like a freight train and it looks to me like he’s only going to get better,” Gilbert says. “Five years from now, I’d be surprised if he hasn’t won at least five to seven majors.”

In two months — from March 21 when the Miami Open began to May 22 when the French Open started — Alcaraz has a win-loss record of 16-1, two ATP 1000s titles and one ATP 500s title. He has won more than $3.7 million this year.

“Mentally and physically he is ready,” Ferrero says.

With success has come intense interest from brands and companies, clamoring to work with Alcaraz in some capacity. The interest started after his US Open run, but it reached new heights after his Madrid Open victory. Molina’s days are packed with back-to-back calls with brands. They pepper him with questions about Alcaraz’s availability and interest in signing with them.

Alcaraz and his team are sticking to the game plan laid out in the “Carlos Project” and are looking at his future as a “long-distance race,” Molina says. It’s important to protect the 19-year-old and to set him up for a long and successful career. As of now, he has signed with Nike (for clothes and shoes), Babolat (for rackets) and Rolex.

He shares that although his life has turned upside down, he managed to get his driver’s license a few months ago. He has been thinking about his dream car, a Lamborghini, he says. The prices of a Lamborghini in Spain range from 170,000 euros to 2 million euros, which he could now afford, but his parents, who still handle his finances, have asked him to wait.

“He’s the same Carlitos as when he was 12 — more mature, but the same personality, simple and happy to be around people,” Molina says.

And just as the world has come to know Alcaraz, so too has Alcaraz come to know himself. His own self-assessments border on prophecy. Before he won his first ATP Challenger tournament in 2020 in Trieste, Italy, he told Ferrero, “Juan Carlos, I am ready to win a title.” He repeated the phrase before winning his maiden 250-level title, in 2021 in Umag, Croatia. Before opening the 2022 season with a win at the 500-level stop in Rio, he told his coach he was ready to take the next step up. The same words were spoken prior to winning the Masters 1000 event last month in Miami.

Now, there’s only one level left. A few days after winning the Madrid Open, and days before the French Open, Alcaraz approached Fererro: “Juan Carlos, I am ready to win a Grand Slam.”

“He doesn’t just say it — he says it when he really feels it, and it’s always a very special moment,” Ferrero says. “When he played the US Open, he didn’t tell me. When he played last year in Roland Garros he didn’t tell me, but now something is changed. So, let’s see.”