How Carlos Alcaraz Started His Tennis Journey:
Spanish professional tennis player Carlos Alcaraz was born in El Palmar, Murcia, Spain, on May 5, 2003. In 2022, at the age of 19, he became the youngest athlete in history to top the men's Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour rankings. He became the first male adolescent champion at a major tournament since Pete Sampras in 1990 when he won the U.S. Open that year. It was the first of six Grand Slam victories; he has won two times at Wimbledon (2023, 2024), the French Open (2024, 2025), and the U.S. Open (2022, 2025).
Carlos Alcaraz is regarded as one of the top two young men’s tennis players in the generation growing up after the Big Three (Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer), along with his main rival, Italy’s Jannik Sinner. Alcaraz is well-known for his extraordinary speed and unrelentingly aggressive style. Carlos Alcaraz is the second of four sons born to Virginia Garfia Escandón, a former IKEA sales assistant, and Carlos Alcaraz González, a former professional tennis player turned coach.
At the age of four, he started playing tennis at the neighborhood tennis club in Murcia, in southeast Spain, when his father purchased his first racket. Carlos Alcaraz’s great uncle and grandpa were members of the club at the time, and Alcaraz’s father served as its athletic director. Alcaraz’s family has a long history of tennis, therefore he has always liked the game and wanted to make it his career.
In his early teens, Carlos Alcaraz demonstrated enough promise to secure sponsorships, which allowed him to travel to junior competitions in Spain and other parts of Europe and pay coaches. He relocated to Villena in 2018 at the age of 15 to start training with former top-ranked player and 2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero. Ferrero in 2023 recounted to Vogue what had impressed him about the precocious young Alcaraz: “In particular, the fact that he was engaging in a variety of activities that young children don’t perform, such drop shots, lobs, and sprinting to the net.You could already tell that he was quite energetic.
From 2017 to 2020, Carlos Alcaraz participated in junior International Tennis Federation (ITF) Tour competitions. On January 6, 2020, he reached a career-high ITF junior ranking of 22. Standing six feet (1.83 meters) tall, Alcaraz made his ATP Tour debut at the Rio Open in February 2020. There the 16-year-old upset the number 41-ranked fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas, 7–6, 4–6, 7–6, in a 3-hour 37-minute first-round encounter before succumbing in the second round.
Carlos Alcaraz, being 17 years old, made his Grand Slam main-draw debut at the Australian Open in February 2021 as the youngest contestant. He defeated Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands 6–1, 6–4, 6–4 to move on to the next round. In July of that year, Alcaraz defeated Frenchman Richard Gasquet in straight sets at Umag, Croatia, 6-2, 6-2, earning his first ATP title. No player as young as Alcaraz—only 18 at the time—had lifted an ATP trophy since 2008.
In the 2022 season, Carlos Alcaraz’s quick ascent in the world of professional tennis reached unprecedented heights. In February, he defeated Diego Schwartzman of Argentina in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, at Rio de Janeiro. at March, he defeated Casper Ruud of Norway, 7-5, 6-4, to win the Miami title. Alcaraz’s greatest moment came in September at the U.S. Open when he defeated Ruud 6–4, 2–6, 7–6, 6–3 to win his first Grand Slam title.
In April, he became the first player to defeat both Nadal and Djokovic at the same event, defeating him on his way to winning the title in straight sets, 6–3, 6–1, against Germany’s Alexander Zverev. On September 12, he made history as the youngest athlete ever to rise to world No. 1 in men’s tennis.
at 2023, Carlos Alcaraz had yet another successful season, winning championships at Buenos Aires, Indian Wells, California, Barcelona, Madrid, and London. Alcaraz advanced to the French Open quarterfinals in May before losing to Djokovic in four sets due to an injury that prevented him from participating in the Australian Open. He again met the Serbian great in early July, in the final at Wimbledon. At just 20 years old, Alcaraz captured his second Grand Slam crown after surviving a dramatic five-set battle, winning 1–6, 7–6, 6–1, 3–6, 6–4 in a match many viewed as a symbolic shift to a new era. He wrapped up the season ranked No. 2 in the world and reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open.
Carlos Alcaraz made it to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open to begin the 2024 season, which was his greatest result to date. In March, he went on to defend his championship at Indian Wells. Alcaraz achieved his maiden Grand Slam on clay at the French Open by winning tough five-set matches against Zverev in the final and Sinner in the semifinal. Alcaraz became the youngest men’s tennis player to win major events on all three surfaces (hard court, grass, and clay) with that victory at the age of 21. He defeated Djokovic at Wimbledon in July, bringing his Grand Slam total to four.
Carlos Alcaraz participated in his first Olympic Games in Paris in August. After a thrilling 7–6, 7–6 defeat against frequent opponent Djokovic in the final, he won the silver medal in singles. He overcame a two-set deficit against rival Sinner to win his fifth Grand Slam championship in the 2025 French Open. Alcaraz won the last set in a tie-breaker to end the thrilling five-set battle, which lasted more than five hours. In their rematch in the Wimbledon finals, Sinner defeated Alcaraz in four sets, giving him his first defeat in a major final. At the 2025 U.S. Open, Alcaraz and Sinner faced off in the title match, which Alcaraz won.