Since 2006, 71 men’s Grand Slam singles tennis titles have been awarded. Of these, just 12 have been won by players outside the holy trinity of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. In fact, so dominant have these three been that, when Federer retired in 2022, there was much grumbling among tennis communities about how boring competitions were about to become now that it was a two-horse race. Then a Spanish teenager named Carlos Alcaraz stepped on court.

Joining the ATP tour in 2020 as a 16-year-old wildcard, a year later Alcaraz became the youngest-ever participant in a men’s singles Grand Slam at the Australian Open. In the same year, he became the youngest player to break into the top 100 rankings, and the youngest player ever to win a match at the Madrid Open. True, he was soundly defeated by Nadal in the second round (on his 18^th birthday), but heads were turned. Did tennis finally have a contender to take on the big boys, or would Alcaraz be yet another flash in the pan?

If you have even a passing interest in tennis you’ll know he’s very much on track to prove himself to be the latter. By the end of 2022, Alcaraz had won the Rio, Miami and Madrid Opens and taken his first Grand Slam title, winning the US Open in a gruelling series of matches that included a 5 hour 15 minute epic against Jannick Sinner that ended at 2.50 am. The win cemented his place in the record books as the first teenager to be ranked number one in the world.

Image: Rolex

Image: Rolex

And yet, perhaps unfairly, detractors were quick to dismiss the win. Alcaraz had not, you see, taken on either Nadal or Djokovic to achieve his US Open win – so it didn’t really count, right? Never mind the fact that Alcaraz had, in fact, defeated them both at the 2022 Madrid Open, you can only be the best if you beat the best when it really counts. Needless to say, Alcaraz’s victory over Djokovic in the 2023 Wimbledon final roundly silenced the critics.

Off court, Alcaraz has also proved to be an advertiser’s dream. Young, handsome and with a reliable track record that regularly sees him in semi-finals and finals at major tournaments, it is unsurprising that his current endorsement deals feature household names including Nike, Louis Vuitton, Calvin Klein and BMW. As of 2022, he’s also joined a roster of tennis stars, including Dominic Thiem, Coco Gauff, Taylor Fritz and Caroline Wozniacki, enlisted to show off the latest Rolex timepieces – preferably, one imagines, while holding a big, shiny trophy.

Fresh from the 2023 US Open, we caught up with Alcaraz to talk watches, winning and how he unwinds off-court.

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