Carlos Alcaraz has revealed that he and his entire team have made a special agreement for the Shanghai Masters. The No. 2 seed is playing this tournament for the first time in two years, and by his standards, he doesn’t have the best record here. On his two previous appearances, Alcaraz has reached the last 16 and the quarter-finals, losing to Grigor Dimitrov and Tomas Machac respectively.
Moustache pact after Tokyo triumph
Last year, he had to skip the Shanghai Masters when he picked up an ankle injury on his way to the Tokyo title. Twelve months on, the Spanish star has successfully defended his Japan Open crown, but this time, he’s come to compete in Shanghai immediately. And just four days after he lifted that trophy in Tokyo, Alcaraz got off to a fast start with a 6-3 6-3 victory over Juan Manuel Cerundolo.
But it wasn’t just his tennis that did the talking. The 23-year-old took to the court sporting a brand new moustache on Saturday. He wasn’t the only one. His entire box, which includes his brother, Alvaro, and coach Samuel Lopez, also had matching ‘taches.
Fans recall celebration moment
Fans quickly remembered that, when Alcaraz beat Lehecka to win Tokyo on Tuesday, he ran to celebrate with his team, who shouted: “Moustaches for everyone.” There was clearly some sort of link between his title defence in Japan and his new look in Shanghai – something the seven-time Major champion confirmed after beating Cerundolo.
Alcaraz – who had also written ‘moustache team’ on the camera lens after the match – was quizzed about the new style, and whether he’d be sporting the moustache for the entire tournament. “Well, yeah, it’s gonna be… Yeah, it’s gonna stay for the week,” he grinned.
Alcaraz explains net approach
“You know, I always wanted to step on the court at least once with a moustache. Before Tokyo, it was like, ‘Alright, if I win the tournament, we all have to do the moustache and play in Shanghai with the moustache’. So I think it’s going to be fun, we’re laughing around, we’re just having fun with it, so it came to stay.”
The world No. 3 also discussed something noticeable about his opening match in Shanghai – the number of times he came to the net. While it wasn’t his original tactic, Alcaraz had plenty of joy moving forward.
He explained: “Well, to be honest, it wasn't the plan at the beginning because, I mean, I tried to be ready, tried to get used to the conditions here. The speed of the court is pretty fast, which I like it, and thanks to that, I think I started not very well, not getting the rhythm, not reading his serve, so I tried to do something different.
“I think the first round of every tournament is never easy, I would say even tougher when you didn’t have too much time to adapt yourself the best you can to this tournament, because I came from Tokyo. The conditions, the speed of the court, the speed of the ball, and the humidity, it was different here. But, you know, I think this kind of level, this kind of matches helps a lot for me to still [be] going forward where I really want to reach, so I’m just happy and hopefully next round it’s going to be even better.”
