Tucked away on the underside of one powerful forearm are three inked initials that sum up what drives the man who is tipped for the top at Wimbledon this year.
Carlos Alcaraz, who until May was still a teenager, has just nudged aside the big four – Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and our own Andy Murray – to become the first new male name to be proclaimed top seed at the Wimbledon Championships since 2003.
It’s quite a feat. And ask those who know the muscular, refreshingly frank, young player from the small Spanish town of El Palmar near Murcia how he’s done it and it comes down to those three letters – CCC, which in Spanish means cerebro, corazon and cojones. They broadly translate as: brains, heart and balls.
The motif, which the eagle-eyed may have spotted as Alcaraz held aloft the victory trophy at Queen’s last weekend, is a touching nod to the Spaniard’s heritage, representing a mantra his grandfather drilled into him as he was growing up.
‘My grandfather always told me to focus on … head, heart and balls,’ said Alcaraz, winning one of his first titles back in 2021. If it sounds like the kind of motivational fighting talk Rocky Balboa might have uttered, it would be apt, given Alcaraz likes to get himself fired up for matches by watching Sylvester Stallone in action.
Carlos Alcaraz (pictured), who until May was still a teenager, has become the first new male name to be proclaimed top seed at the Wimbledon Championships since 2003
Alcaraz has already chalked up winnings of more than £13million and banked more than £5million in off-court earnings
Alcaraz, pictured playing tennis as an eight-year-old child, won one of his first titles back in 2021
Alcaraz is apparently single, having previously dated tennis player Maria Gonzalez Gimenez (pictured)
Alcaraz celebrates with the championship trophy after defeating Casper Ruud of Norway during their Men’s Singles Final match on Day Fourteen of the 2022 US Open
Alcaraz celebrates with the trophy after winning the final against Australia’s Alex de Minaur at the Queens Club tennis tournament in London
It certainly seems to be working. By winning the US Open in 2022, he became the youngest Number One in the history of the current ranking system.
Additionally, Alcaraz has already chalked up winnings of more than £13million and has banked more than £5million in off-court earnings – a sum that was doubtless boosted by this week’s announcement that he had become the new ‘house ambassador’ for French fashion brand Louis Vuitton.
As well as sponsorship deals with racket makers Babolat and sports giant Nike, the canny young man (he signed with prestigious agency IMG when he was just 11) has deals with Calvin Klein, BMW and Rolex, to name a few. The only thing that’s missing? Someone special with whom to share his success.
Alcaraz is apparently single, having previously dated stunning tennis player Maria Gonzalez Gimenez and glamorous Spanish singer Ana Mena.
But if you think he might be splashing the cash on fast cars and fancy holidays think again for, rather sweetly, Alcaraz admitted that it’s his father, another Carlos, who looks after his finances. And thanks to his sponsor, he gets a new BMW every year.
As he told Vogue: ‘I’m quite young and I’ve got my whims, but I’m very natural, normal, humble. I don’t really pay much attention to brands and cars. If I like something, I try to buy it, but in the end my father takes care of everything.’
None of this comes as a surprise to anyone who knows the sportsman in El Palmar where he grew up, the second of four sporty boys born to dad Carlos and mum Virginia, until recently a shop assistant at IKEA.
Home is an unassuming two-floor penthouse flat, the second floor of which is home to an office (for his dad) and space for the sportsman’s ever-swelling collection of kit. When the Mail visited the sports club where Alcaraz hit his first rallies, his Uncle Tomas Alcaraz was teaching a lesson in padel tennis, an easier form of the game.
Tomas, 46, beamed with pride when talking about his nephew, who picked up his father’s tennis racket at the age of three and used to cry when he was told he had to put it down for dinner.
‘Carlos always wanted to play tennis,’ smiles Tomas. ‘When he was small you’d say to him, ‘Let’s go to the cinema,’ and he’d say, ‘No, let’s go to the club and I can play against the wall or find someone to play against.’ He would say, ‘Uncle, I spent four hours today hitting the ball against the wall,’ and he wasn’t exaggerating.’
Thus began the ‘Carlitos project’ – Alcaraz prefers to be called Carlitos or Charlie rather than Carlos. It was Tomas who took Alcaraz to his first competitive match, aged six or seven.
Young Alcaraz with his first tennis coach Kiko Navarro
As well as sponsorship deals with racket makers Babolat and sports giant Nike, the canny young man (he signed with prestigious agency IMG when he was just 11) deals with Calvin Klein, BMW and Rolex, to name a few
Another image of Alcaraz with his first coach Navarro giving the thumbs up
It’s hard to believe there was a time when coaches worried whether Alcaraz would be tall enough to become a champion
Navarro, who worked with Alcaraz from age nine to 17, says the only distraction that ever threatened the player’s focus was his mobile phone
‘It was sometimes a source of tension when he was younger because he’d stay up late on the mobile and wouldn’t get the amount of rest I thought he should,’ he says
‘In that first match, he was so small he could just about serve,’ chuckles Tomas. ‘He played against a boy who was three or four years older.
‘He didn’t win the match but I remember him making his opponent run all over the place despite their big age difference. That’s when I saw he was clever at tennis and was able to make spur-of-the moment decisions about how to beat an opponent.’
No doubt the youngster was inspired by Roger Federer, whose poster Alcaraz used to have on his bedroom wall as a child. Underpinning it all, however, were his devoted parents.
It was dad Carlos, says Tomas, who had a ‘fundamental role’ in the shaping of his son’s career. ‘His dad has taken the decisions about when to change his trainers and still plays a part in planning his future path.’
And then, of course, there is grandad Carlos – now in his 80s – and the three Cs, to which we could perhaps add a fourth – chess. Alcaraz is apparently a whizz at the game.
As Carlos senior, who used to run an estate agency, said last year: ‘I have taught all of them [my grandchildren] to play chess, which I think is something that has come in handy for Carlitos when it comes to ordering his mind on court.’
It’s hard to believe there was a time when coaches worried whether Alcaraz would be tall enough to become a champion. His doctor concluded he would probably reach 180cm (5ft11in), with a 5cm margin of error. He turned out to be right, as Alcaraz now stands at 185cm (6ft1in).
Navarro said: ‘I saw a very quick change when I began trying to make him see there was a team behind him, including a sponsor who was putting in money and time to achieve the objective of turning him into a professional tennis player’
‘When he was a kid he would break rackets when he lost a point or a game and I’d have to let him walk around the club on his own and cry and relax before I could talk to him about his attitude,’ says Kiko Navarro
Kiko Navarro, coached Alcaraz, until that task was taken on by former French Open winner Juan Carlos Ferrero, when he was 17
These days Alcaraz counts a psychologist among his sizeable entourage and has done since he was a child with a somewhat fiery temper
Another image of Alcaraz with his long-term coach Navarro posing for the camera in front of a tennis court
These days Alcaraz counts a psychologist among his sizeable entourage and has done since he was a child with a somewhat fiery temper.
‘When he was a kid he would break rackets when he lost a point or a game and I’d have to let him walk around the club on his own and cry and relax before I could talk to him about his attitude,’ says Kiko Navarro, who also coached Alcaraz, until that task was taken on by former French Open winner Juan Carlos Ferrero, when he was 17. ‘But that sort of character is fundamental to someone becoming a winner. Carlos wants to win at everything he does, even board games.’
Navarro, who worked with Alcaraz from age nine to 17, says the only distraction that ever threatened the player’s focus was his mobile phone.
Alcaraz comes from the small Spanish town of El Palmar near Murcia
An image of both Alcaraz and Navarro posing with a trophy
Another picture of Alcaraz and Navarro posing with an award at a junior tennis academy
Navarro has coached Alcaraz throughout all of his junior years
Navarro and Alcaraz greet each other with a warm embrace
‘It was sometimes a source of tension when he was younger because he’d stay up late on the mobile and wouldn’t get the amount of rest I thought he should,’ he says.
‘But I saw a very quick change when I began trying to make him see there was a team behind him, including a sponsor who was putting in money and time to achieve the objective of turning him into a professional tennis player.’ Uncle Tomas agrees: ‘He’s never had regrets about missing out on some of the things in life that he would have experienced more of if he’d not been so focused on the tennis. His passion for tennis has been stronger than anything else.’
As the player who admits to studying videos of Federer and Murray to hone his grass court skills said earlier this year: ‘I’ve always been a very talented kid. But I’ve always worked hard, because if you’re talented and don’t make an effort you get nowhere.’
Does Alcarez see himself as the new Federer or Nadal?
‘I don’t want to be the next Rafa or Roger,’ he says. ‘I want to be the new Carlitos.’
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