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Carlos Alcaraz has arrived at the top of tennisto number one in the ATP ranking, at 19 years, four months and seven days. Much sooner than expected. Gone is Lleyton Hewitt, who got it at 20 years, eight months and 23 days. tournament by tournament, the Murcian is destroying precocity records. He pointed out that he was going to be a star in 2021 (first ATP title in Umag, quarterfinals at the US Open with victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas, NextGen master…) and he has confirmed it with a bang in 2022. This is how they endorse it two Masters 1,000 titles, Miami and Madrid (leaving Nadal, Djokovic and Zverev by the way), and two from ATP 500, Barcelona and Rio. And, above all, his first Grand Slam winthe US Open, which has raised him to the top.
When after Nadal, who is still giving a lot of trouble (champion in Australia and Roland Garros) a crossing of the desert was guessed, a tornado has once again shaken tennis from El Palmar, the district of Murcia where the new phenomenon was born. His strength, his head, his character, his volleys, his spontaneity, his fighting ability… make him a magnet for the hobbyistwhich has already adopted him as an idol in all the courts he has passed through. This is Alcaraz, from A to Z.
CHESS
Nadal is from parcheesi and Alcaraz, from chess. His grandfather Carlos taught him and he uses it to concentrate. “It’s a lot like tennis. If you get lost, the game is over. It helps me think faster,” he says.
BABOLAT
The Murcian’s weapon is from the same ‘house’ as Nadal’s. He signed with 10 years! I hire her from him and she’s wearing the Pure Aero VS precision racquet, which has one more string: speed and control. He does not use antivibration.
DRIVING LICENSE
It was his great illusion. In January he traveled to Australia with the approved theorist. And when he returned, and before traveling to Rio, he gave nine practical classes at ‘Autoescuelas León’, near his house, and he got it.
DIET
Take great care of your diet. He likes sushi before games. A pasta dish with ambrosia and olive oil is also usually prepared. His team has instilled in him to eat “quality fats, proteins and carbohydrates”. Grilled fish, avocado or bananas are not lacking.
THE PALMAR
Alcaraz has grown in the Murcian district of El Palmar, with some 25,000 inhabitants. For what he claims to be “a village boy”. He trained there, at the Country Club where his father directs tennis classes.
FAMILY
Carlos is the second of four brothers. Álvaro (21 years old) sometimes serves as a sparring partner. Sergio (11) and Jaime (9) are the other children of Carlos Sr. and Virginia Garfia, a former employee in a shopping center.
GOLF
Golf is Ferrero’s great passion (handicap 1), and he even caddyed for Sergio García after retiring. And he has passed it on to his pupil, with whom he has itches on the tours. After winning Miami, Alcaraz relaxed with the sticks.
MODESTY
Nadal said it after training with him for the first time in Australia 2021: “He is a very good boy and has extraordinary humility and capacity for work.” And Ferrero says: “He comes from a family that is extremely well educated in values.”
RAFA NADAL IDOL
“I want to be like Nadal, because he trains very hard and he really wants to.” At the age of 16, and on the slopes of the Rafa Nadal Academy where he won a tournament, Alcaraz has already made it clear. “If you compare me to him, I’m on the right track,” he says now.
JUAN CARLOS FERRERO
The former number one and Roland Garros champion began advising him in 2018, at the age of 15. Juanki, as he calls him, is also his friend. He trains at his Academia Equelite de Villena, where he lives in a bungalow.
POUNDS
The physical transformation of ‘Tarzan’ was made clear in January in Australia. He has gained muscle and has gone from 76 to 81 kg due to the physical work and development of him. But what his team wants is for his fiber to be explosive.
LOUPES
‘Los Lupas’ are Alcaraz’s gang in El Palmar. And he dedicated his triumph at the ATP 500 in Rio to them by making glasses with his hands. “It doesn’t have any special meaning, but it makes us laugh.”
MIAMI
On April 3, 2022, at the age of 18 years and 333 days, he became the youngest champion of the Miami Masters 1,000. No Spanish male tennis player had won in Florida. The explosion of him.
NUMBER ONE
He began the year in 32nd place in the ranking and in nine months he has climbed to the top, to the “dream” he had as a child. At 19 years, four months and seven days he has become the youngest number one in history, beating Lleyton Hewitt.
SPAIN
Since he was a child he has competed with the National Team: in 2018 he won the junior Davis Cup and in 2022 he made his debut with the ‘absolute’ in Marbella against Romania. The coronavirus prevented him from debuting in the 2021 Finals.
DARKNESS
Alcaraz resembles Nadal in one thing: “I’m afraid of the dark.” Rafa didn’t turn off the lights to sleep… Another thing they share: order with the bottles. Alcaraz puts energy on the left and water on the right.
PSYCHOLOGY
“He has evolved a lot on a mental level,” Ferrero says of him. He treats his weak points with the psychologist Isabel Balaguer. “I work a lot on emotional management, managing nerves at key moments.”
CHEMISTRY
He has a great connection with his team of ten people: Ferrero, Albert Molina (agent), Toni Cascales (Equelite director), Balaguer (psychologist), Alberto Lledó and Álex Sánchez (physicist), Juanjo Moreno, Fran Rubio and Sergio Hernández (physios ) and Juanjo López (doctor).
REAL MADRID
Alcaraz is a fan of Real Madrid (like Ferrero), he was very excited to meet Karim Benzema (whom he asked for a photo at the AS Awards) and he does not hide that he would like to see Mbappé dressed in white. On April 30, he attended the Whites’ match against Espanyol (it was his first time at the Bernabéu), in which Nadal took the honorary kick-off.
NAP
It sounds incredible, but one of his pre-match routines is to take a 20-minute nap before hitting the court. At the NextGen Finals, the cameras caught him taking a snooze.
top-ten
He entered the top ten of the ATP (9th) on April 25 after winning the Godó Trophy, culminating a rise of 110 places in a single year. Curiously, the same day that Nadal achieved it in 2005. The Murcian, with 18 years and 11 months. The Balearic, with 18 and 10.
UMAG
At the age of 18 years and two months (just like Nadal), Alcaraz won his first ATP title in the 250 in Umag (Croatia), on dirt. He defeated Richard Gasquet … 35 years old by a double 6-2.
VOLLEY
One of Charly’s best (and prettiest) weapons are volleys. Faced with the boredom of punches, imagination. In Miami he made 60 dropshots and won 55. In the final, he nailed 11 serve-volley plays, all effective. Magic.
WILL SMITH
Her favorite actor is Will Smith, who has played Ali or Richard Williams, the sisters’ father. His favorite movie, ‘Rocky’ and his song, the Italian colt soundtrack: ‘Eye of the tiger’.
NEXTGEN FINALS
The Masters for under 22s organized by the ATP to publicize its stars of the future, was dominated by Alcaraz already at 18. In the final in Milan he was crowned by defeating Sebastian Korda.
YAYO
His grandfather, Carlos Alcaraz, like his father (he became runner-up in Spain for children) and like his grandson, was the first member of the Club de Campo tennis section. And he gave Charly the recipe for ‘the three C’s’: “Head, heart and balls”.
GENERATION Z
The Murcian, being the youngest, aspires to be the leader of those born between 1997 and 2012. The post-millennials of the circuit: Zverev, Tsitsipas, Berrettini, Ruud, Auger-Aliassime, Sinner, Hurkacz, Shapovalov…