The familiar face of a 20-year-old millionaire named Carlos Alcaraz, who returns to number one in tennis

The Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz He won the Indian Wells tournament this Sunday, the first Masters 1,000 of the season, by overwhelming (6-3, 6-2) in the final the Russian Daniil Medvedev, the eighth title of his record that returns him to number one in the world.

The Murcian conquered the world tennis throne again and is number one again, and he is only 20 years old. He won his first Grand Slam in September and, with this great triumph in New York, he managed to become the youngest player to reach number 1 in the ATP men’s rankings. He now he has got it back.

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The young man was born on May 5, 2003 in El Palmar, a district of the Region of Murcia just a few minutes drive from the capital. Almost twenty years later he is the new Spanish hero, a lanky, tall, close tennis player. Carlitos is tremendously competitive, the diminutive does not scare him because he sounds good to him, because that is how he answers when he calls him his grandfather CarlosHello Grandma paquitao Carlosthe father, or Virginiathe Sevillian mother.

Carlitos, as he also calls himself on Instagram, attended high school at the Marqués de Vélez Institute, in his town, and was lucky to have a tutor who supervised his studies so that he did not interrupt his projection.

As sure of himself on and off the track, as spontaneous and natural as when he uttered that memorable phrase at just ten years old in front of a television camera: “I want to win a Grand Slam and be number one.”

Alcaraz overflows sympathy and security. Aplomb. Family preparation worked from the beginning, since grandfather Carlos realized that Carlitos would go far when he saw him, at just three years old, wielding the racket, “bigger than him.”

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This child is a beast, and a mine. A kid who dazzles beyond the tracks, be they cement, grass or brick dust. That he multiplies his admirers with each drop and with each phrase, even though interviews are forbidden to him while he competes; although Virginia continues to insist on “not being late”, the mothers! She passed the driver’s license in February. And, of course, he is only 20 years old.

This Sunday, Alcaraz won his third tournament in this category, after Miami and Madrid last year, in a three out of three final, his second title in 2023 after Buenos Aires. The Murcian, who started the course in the Argentine event after two consecutive injuries, also played in the final in Rio de Janeiro, who was unable to compete due to another injury, and in his third tournament of the season he repeated the final and trophy.

Juan Carlos Ferrero’s pupil, the revelation tennis player of 2022 winning the US Open to be the youngest world number one in history, is on his way to an even bigger year, still at 19 years old and without rival even in a Medvedev who had 19 games without losing and three titles in a row (Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai).

Alcaraz, who returns to number one that Novak Djokovic took from him in an Australian Open that the Spanish missed, passed over the Russian without regard, without blinking despite the recital or being affected by the wind on the imposing Californian center court.