Why the youngest career Grand Slam winner still hates to lose
The champagne was still cold, and the ink on the history books had barely dried, but Carlos Alcaraz was already looking past the horizon.
Moments after dismantling Novak Djokovic in a four-set thriller at Rod Laver Arena, the 22-year-old Spaniard sat in the main interview room, a Career Grand Slam finally in his possession. He is now the youngest man to ever achieve the feat, eclipsing a record that had stood for nearly nine decades.
Yet, for a player who has already conquered the red clay of Paris, the lawns of SW19, and the hard courts of New York and Melbourne, the question naturally arose: what is left for a man who has won it all before his 23rd birthday?
The answer was as simple as it was terrifying for the rest of the ATP Tour.
“Well, I hate lose,” Alcaraz said with a grin that didn’t quite mask his competitive edge. “So that’s my motivation. Trying to lose as less as I can.”
For most players, completing the set of all four majors is a career-ending “job finished” moment. For Alcaraz, it feels like a mid-term evaluation.
While the tennis world obsesses over the “Grand Slam” count, Alcaraz revealed a bucket list that is surprisingly granular. He isn’t just chasing the big trophies; he is chasing perfection across the entire calendar.
“There are some tournaments that I just really wanted to win at least once,” he explained, pivoting away from the glory of the Australian Open trophy sitting beside him. “Few master 1000 I just really really wanted to complete you know all the master 1000… trying to win at least once every every master.”
It is a quest for total statistical dominance. Currently, a handful of titles—specifically the Canadian Open, Shanghai, and Paris Masters—remain missing from his cabinet. For Alcaraz, these aren’t just secondary stops on the tour; they are holes in his legacy that he feels an almost physical need to fill.
Beyond the individual accolades of the ATP circuit, Alcaraz’s eyes lit up when the conversation shifted toward the red and gold of the Spanish flag. Despite his individual success, he remains acutely aware of the empty space reserved for team glory.
“Obviously the ATP finals and the Davis Cup,” Alcaraz noted when listing his remaining goals. “The Davis Cup is is it is a goal as well. I really want to achieve that for my country, for Spain.”
In an era where some top stars treat team competitions as an optional burden, Alcaraz views the Davis Cup with the same reverence as a Wimbledon final. It is a trait he shares with his idol, Rafael Nadal, and it suggests that his “motivation” isn’t fueled by ego, but by a sense of duty to the history of Spanish tennis.
Perhaps the most insightful moment of the evening came when Alcaraz touched upon the relentless nature of the sport he dominates. He admitted that the speed of the tour often prevents him from realizing the gravity of his own achievements.
“I’m going to say tennis is really beautiful,” he mused. “But the bad part of tennis it is we have tournaments week after week after week and sometimes you don’t realize what you’ve been doing lately because once you finish tournament you got to be prepared or your mind is about going to the next tournament.”
It is the paradox of the modern champion: to stay at the top, you cannot look down to see how high you’ve climbed. Alcaraz, however, is trying to change that. He spoke of a new maturity, a desire to “appreciate and enjoy every single second” of the life he is living—the losses as well as the wins.
As he prepares to head back to Spain, Alcaraz confirmed he will be bringing a souvenir back from Melbourne, and it won’t just be the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup. Following his tradition of getting a tattoo for every maiden Slam title, the Spaniard confirmed a new addition is coming.
“It’s going to be a kangaroo for sure. A little kangaroo,” he said. “I don’t know where it’s going to be. It’s going to be in the leg for sure.”
The tattoo will serve as a permanent reminder of the night he became the youngest king of the Career Slam. But if his press conference was any indication, that kangaroo will soon be joined by many more marks of success.
