Carlos Alcaraz showed up at the US Open with a shocking new buzzcut, and now he’s finally spilled the beans on what really happened.
Let’s be honest – no player in the top 100 has experimented with haircuts quite like Alcaraz has over the past three years. Short hair, long hair, you name it.
The guy’s basically been a walking hair experiment.
| Name | Age | Points | Stats 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carlos Alcaraz | 22 | 68,791 | 25 - 5 |
But this latest look? It caught everyone completely off guard. When he walked onto the practice court with a full buzzcut, social media went crazy. Some people compared it to David Beckham’s iconic look from 2000. Others weren’t having it at all.
The haircut split fans right down the middle, though everyone was pretty good-natured about it.
But here’s what everyone really wanted to know: Why?
After Alcaraz beat Reilly Opelka 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 in the first round, reporters didn’t waste time asking about his tennis. They went straight for the hair question.
Turns out, it was all his brother’s fault.
The 22-year-old explained that his brother Alvaro, who travels with him on tour, had a little mishap with the hair clippers. Once part of his hair was already cut, there wasn’t really any way to fix it except to buzz the whole thing off.
"I felt like my hair was really long already. And before the tournament, I said that I really want to get a haircut. Suddenly, my brother just misunderstood the machine. He just cut it, and the only way to fix it was just to shave it off. To be honest, it’s not that good… It’s not that bad, I guess."
Now, Alcaraz is a multi-millionaire. He could literally hire a personal barber to follow him around the world if he wanted to. That’d be pretty ridiculous, sure, but the point is he’s got options.
New York has thousands of professional barbers.
So naturally, reporters asked why he didn’t just go to his usual barber Victor, or really any professional, instead of letting his brother experiment on his head.
"New York is too far away for Victor. I’m not really into hair at all. I’m the guy who thinks like, ‘okay hair grows,’ and in a few days it’s gonna be okay, I guess. It just happened and that’s it."
Even though Alcaraz claims he doesn’t care much about his hair, he’s definitely been paying attention to all the reactions online.
Frances Tiafoe was apparently one of the first players to come check out the new look in person.
The five-time Grand Slam champion admitted he’s been cracking up at all the buzz his buzzcut has created.
"I mean, since I just show the people my haircut, I didn’t see anything else in talking about my haircut. Some people like it. Some people don’t like it. To be honest, I’m just laughing about the reaction of the people. It is what it is. So I can’t do anything else right now, so I’m just laughing about everything that they are talking about my haircut."
At least he’s taking it all in stride. And hey, hair does grow back – though probably not fast enough for the US Open.
