The 20-year-old world number one heart-throb set for Wimbledon glory… don’t worry, he’s SINGLE! 

Tucked away on the underside of a powerful forearm are three inked initials that encapsulate what drives the man tipped for the top at Wimbledon this year.

Carlos Alcaraz, who was a teenager until May, has just edged out the big four – Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and our very own Andy Murray – to become the first new male name to be named the top seed in the world since 2003. Wimbledon Championships.

It’s quite an achievement. And ask those who know the muscular, refreshingly open-hearted young player from the small Spanish town of El Palmar near Murcia how he did it and it comes down to those three letters – CCC, which in Spanish means cerebro, corazon and means cojones. They roughly translate as: brain, heart and balls.

The motif, which the eagle-eyed may have noticed as Alcaraz held up the victory trophy at Queen’s last weekend, is a moving nod to the Spaniard’s heritage and represents a mantra instilled in him by his grandfather as he grew up.

“My grandfather always told me to focus on … head, heart and balls,” said Alcaraz, who won one of his first titles in 2021. be suitable, as Alcaraz likes to get himself excited for matches by watching Sylvester Stallone in action.

It certainly seems to work. By winning the 2022 US Open, he became the youngest number one in the history of the current ranking system.

In addition, Alcaraz has already won more than £13 million and earned more than £5 million in out-of-court earnings – a figure no doubt boosted by this week’s announcement that he had become the French fashion brand’s new ‘house ambassador’. Louis Vuitton.

In addition to sponsorship deals with racquet manufacturer Babolat and sports giant Nike, the savvy young man (he signed with the prestigious agency IMG when he was just 11) has deals with Calvin Klein, BMW and Rolex, to name a few. The only thing missing? A special someone with whom to share his success.

Alcaraz is apparently single, having previously dated stunning tennis player Maria Gonzalez Gimenez and glamorous Spanish singer Ana Mena.

But if you think he spends the money on fast cars and fancy vacations, think again because, rather sweetly, Alcaraz admitted that it’s his father, another Carlos, who takes care of his finances. And thanks to his sponsor, he gets a new BMW every year.

As he told Vogue, “I’m quite young and I have my quirks, but I’m very natural, normal, humble. I don’t really pay attention to makes and cars. If I like something, I try to buy it, but in the end my father arranges everything.’

None of this comes as a surprise to anyone who knows the sportsman in El Palmar where he grew up, the second of four sporty boys of father Carlos and mother Virginia, until recently an IKEA store clerk.

Home is a modest two-story penthouse, the second floor of which is an office (for his father) and space for the sportsman’s ever-expanding collection of gear. When the Mail visited the sports club where Alcaraz hit his first rallies, his uncle Tomas taught Alcaraz padel tennis, an easier form of the game.

Tomas, 46, beamed with pride as he spoke of his cousin, who picked up his father’s tennis racket at the age of three and always cried when told to put it down for dinner.

‘Carlos always wanted to play tennis’, smiles Tomas. “When he was little you said to him, ‘Let’s go to the cinema,’ and he said, ‘No, let’s go to the club and I can play against the wall or find someone to play against.’ He’d say, “Uncle, I’ve been hitting the ball against the wall for four hours today,” and he wasn’t exaggerating.’

Thus began the ‘Carlitos Project’ – Alcaraz prefers to be called Carlitos or Charlie rather than Carlos. It was Tomas who took Alcaraz to his first competitive game, aged six or seven.

‘In that first game he was so small that he could almost serve’, Tomas chuckles. “He played against a boy who was three or four years older.

“He didn’t win the game, but I remember he made his opponent run in all directions, despite their big age difference. Then I saw that he was smart at tennis and was able to make impulsive decisions about how to beat an opponent.’

No doubt the youngster was inspired by Roger Federer, whose poster Alcaraz used to hang on his bedroom wall as a kid. At the heart of it all, however, were his devoted parents.

It was Dad Carlos, says Tomas, who played a “fundamental role” in shaping his son’s career. “His dad made the decisions about when to switch trainers and still plays a part in planning his future path.”

And then, of course, there’s Grandpa Carlos – now in his 80s – and the three C’s, to which we might add a fourth – chess. Alcaraz is apparently a rock at the game.

As Carlos senior, who used to run a real estate agency, said last year, “I taught them all [my grandchildren] to play chess, which I think is something that has served Carlitos well to organize his mind on the court.”

It’s hard to believe there was a time when coaches worried about whether Alcaraz would be tall enough to become champions. His doctor concluded that he would probably reach 180cm (5ft11in), with a margin of error of 5cm. He turned out to be right, as Alcaraz now stands at 185cm (6ft1in).

Alcaraz now counts a psychologist among his extensive entourage and has done so since he was a child with a somewhat fiery character.

“When he was a kid he would break rackets if he lost a point or a game and I would have to let him walk around the club on his own and cry and relax before I could talk to him about his attitude,” says Kiko. Navarro, who also coached Alcaraz, until that task was taken over at the age of 17 by former French Open winner Juan Carlos Ferrero. “But that kind of character is fundamental to someone becoming a winner. Carlos wants to win in everything he does, even board games.’

Navarro, who worked with Alcaraz from nine to seventeen, says the only distraction that ever threatened the player’s attention was his cell phone.

“It was a source of tension sometimes when he was younger because he stayed late on the cell phone and didn’t get the amount of rest I thought he should be getting,” he says.

“But I saw a very rapid change when I started trying to show him that there was a team behind him, including a sponsor who put money and time into the goal of making him a professional tennis player.” Uncle Tomas agrees: “He has never regretted missing out on some of the things in life that he would have experienced more if he hadn’t been so focused on tennis. His passion for tennis is stronger than anything.’

As the player who admits to studying videos of Federer and Murray to hone his turf skills said earlier this year, “I’ve always been a very talented kid. But I’ve always worked hard, because if you have talent and don’t make an effort, you won’t get anywhere.’

Does Alcarez see himself as the new Federer or Nadal?

“I don’t want to be the next Rafa or Roger,” he says. “I want to be the new Carlitos.”