“Today we play at home, with break of advantage…”
It is seven in the afternoon and Carlos Alcaraz’s father, also Carlos, enters the Old Prison of Murcia with a smile from ear to ear, as does the tennis player and all his family and friends who are going to enjoy a very special because the exhibition opens With our feet on the ground: moving through childhoodframed in the athlete’s foundation and can be visited until mid-February. “And where better than here, in my land and with my people? Like here, nowhere…” says the protagonist in the midst of the intimate atmosphere generated after the presentation, the scene being unusual. Wherever you go, Alcaraz is usually surrounded by crowds and noise, and this time it enjoys a very pleasant closeness and tranquility. Of the murcianity. A busy week of filming and various commitments is coming to an end for him; also training, because the preseason has already taken off and the Australian Open is not really that far away.
Her mother Virginia walks discreetly and elegantly, her brother Álvaro laughs out loud, Mayor José Ballesta has already dedicated a few words to her and the marineras of donut, anchovy and Russian salad circulate on the trays that come and go around the patio. One floor higher, a few treasures shine: the net from the first Wimbledon conquest, the clothing of success, shoes from some notable days and, of course, the trophies. The young 21-year-old tennis player jokes and asks that the trace of a fingerprint be erased from the US Open, while watching the video of how he defeated Zverev in the Roland Garros final. Before, during the event, he went back to his origins during the talk with his aunt Beatriz Garfia, director of the foundation. The athlete remembers those days in El Palmar and how he put his head into the tennis elite in the midst of an unusual circumstance, given that the resources towards the top were fair; Nothing was missing, but nothing was left over either.
“Now young people of six, seven or eight years old approach me and I perceive joy and excitement, so I try to inspire them because that fills me. I was also a child with a dream, so my family and I want to contribute our grain of sand. This is a very important project for me,” says Alcaraz. “My childhood was very beautiful and I still have the same friends from then. I grew up in the town house and especially in the Country Club, in the environment of an average family in which we did not lack what we needed, but without great luxuries, to be honest. “I haven’t needed much to be happy,” says the athlete, today the sporting spearhead of a community that has gained projection since he triumphed in New York in 2022, although at home it was already perceived that that skinny and “moved” boy had He had a gift with the racket and could go far, as long as the ideal atmosphere was created around him. That oasis is none other than the local one, his beloved Murcia.
“For us, Alcaraz has a cohesive effect. Taking into account all the identity problems that we have here, as a result of all the geographical and historical factors that influence, there is always a tug of war between the different parties, but with him there is no discussion. Carlos represents an element of unity, not division,” explains the head of Sports of the regional television 7 Region of Murcia, Juan Alfonso Cervantes. “Alcaraz means work and humility,” says a person who has known him since he was little. “To one [Álvaro] “You had to grab him by the ear to bring him in, and you had to grab the other one by the ear to get him out of here… He would lie for hours and hours in front of the wall,” says another who points her finger at the fronton where the player began to rally. tennis player in the company of his older brother, now adventure partner and sparring common in tournaments.
“Loving” environment
Moments later, Alcaraz attends to the children who ask him for an autograph or a photo once the session has ended in the gym of the Real Sociedad Club de Campo. While he corresponds, coach Kiko Navarro tells some anecdotes, instrumental in attracting the sponsorship—Postres Reina, a regional company—that allowed the tennis player to begin to acquire international flight. “Fortunately we were able to build this court here,” he says, pointing out a hard surface, “and it was essential, because Carlos needed to travel to prestigious tournaments like the one in Tarbes. [Francia] and I had to learn to play on fast, not just on clay.” The trainer speaks of a “generous” and “unruly” boy who in terms of order “was a complete disaster, very chaotic”; He remembers a scolding during a trip through Italy that made the boy “change his chip” and also the days when he “walked” through the Pamplona Tennis Club to be crowned champion of Spain when he was a cadet, in 2018.
“That They are good what michirone and I shook iteh?”, he slips, biting his S’s, recovering his own accent that he tends to lose when speaking in public. Surrounded by his people and in his natural habitat, Alcaraz acts as one of the others and enjoys the country and normality, sharing spaces and conversation with all the club members. In contrast to the hermetic, icy and distant circles of other stars of his sport, the one from Murcia offers closeness, kindness and everyday life. “Is your father here today?” an employee asks. “No idea where he is! I don’t know if he’ll come closer later…” he answers, very relaxed in an atmosphere without vices and diametrically opposed to that of the circuit, in which everything is noise, flashes, commitments and some stress. Here, despite the zeros that now flood his checking account, Alcaraz is one of the people and parks the red car of the brand that sponsors him along with the rest, without distinction.
At the entrance to the complex there is a large poster praising “our number one”, and in the upper area of the interior, his great-uncle Tomás González, president of the entity, popularly known as Tiro de Pichón, demonstrates his good hand in a morning doubles match. Just five minutes by car, about twenty from the center of Murcia, lies the humble district of El Palmar, which concentrates some 24,000 inhabitants with the Sierra de Carrascoy as a backdrop. And there, among orange and orange blossom trees, grew a racket phenomenon called Alcaraz, the same “Carlitos” that the neighbors encourage today with the flags that hang from the balconies and who presides over the access to the town with a gigantic polyhedral mural that painted Sbah, an artist from Mazarrón, when he triumphed in Miami (2022).
One of the facades of the school where he studied is covered by another immense graffiti with the face of the young Alcaraz and about 500 meters from there the family home is located, on the third floor of a conventional red brick building. His father ran the tennis school and his mother was an employee at a large retail store. Hairdressers, a tattoo shop, a roast chicken shop and an English academy are integrated into a static landscape early in the day that offers a very particular nod; On the other side of the street, just 20 meters from the portal and visible from his window, stands out a municipal facility inaugurated in April that features a blue tennis court surrounded by a metal fence. The perfect space to fantasize.
“I grew up in a loving environment and I know that little things make a difference. He was a kid with dreams, like everyone else. And I chased them. You never think you’re going to achieve it, you can’t imagine that you’re going to be surrounded by your idols and play against them, that you’re going to achieve everything you set out to do… If I go back, I’m that one.10-year-old boy who had the dream of being one of the best in the world, so I wouldn’t believe everything I’m experiencing,” says Alcaraz, proud and grateful, now a mirror for those who admire him, imitate him and approach him. daily in the happy routine of the club. “In difficult contexts, references help to visualize a different future. They empower to act,” reads one of the graphics designed for the cultural center’s exhibition. And there he continues, still dreaming and looking ahead, with the firm desire to soon take over Australia and thus close the circle of the four majors. With the touch murcianico as a flag.
