5-time main winner Carlos Alcaraz created fairly a buzz when he arrived at Flushing Meadows for the 2025 U.S. Open sporting a shaved head. Displaying up in Queens with shorter hair is nothing new for the Spaniard, who has usually gotten his summer season reduce earlier than the 12 months’s remaining grand slam. However hair shaved to scalp? That threw tennis followers—and even pundits—for a loop.
So after Alcaraz’s first spherical triumph in straight units over American Reilly Opelka on Monday, a reporter asked Alcaraz what led to the new-look haircut. Because it seems, the buzzcut was the answer to a mishap that occurred when Alcaraz’s brother tried to provide him a haircut.
“Fairly totally different I suppose,” Alcaraz mentioned. “I felt like my hair was actually lengthy already. And earlier than the event I mentioned that I actually need to get a haircut. Abruptly my brother simply misunderstood with the machine. He simply reduce it and the one method to repair it’s simply to shave it off. To be trustworthy it’s not that good—it’s not that unhealthy I suppose.”
Alcaraz mentioned the journey to Queens would have been too far for his common barber, Victor Martinez, therefore why his brother picked up the slack on haircut duties.
The reception to the haircut has been blended. 5-time main winner and star golfer Rory McIlroy, who he had spoke with earlier earlier than taking part in, said it was a “good look.” Fellow tennis participant and good friend Frances Tiafoe was on the opposite finish of the spectrum, calling the haircut “horrible” and joking that at the least the Spaniard was now “aerodynamic.”
“Some folks prefer it. Some folks don’t prefer it,” Alcaraz mentioned. “To be trustworthy, I’m simply laughing in regards to the response of the folks. It’s what it’s. So I can’t do the rest proper now, so I’m simply laughing about all the pieces that they’re speaking about my haircut.”
Alcaraz will subsequent tackle Mattia Bellucci within the second spherical of the U.S. Open on Thursday.
