Latest news with #CarlosAlcaraz:MyWay
Hindustan Times
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Rafael Nadal blasts Netflix for inaccurate Carlos Alcaraz documentary: ‘Was approached in the wrong way'
Fans were treated to Carlos Alcaraz's documentary on Netflix this year, focussing on his life and career. Titled 'Carlos Alcaraz: My Way', it showcased the Spaniard's life outside the court. Due to the documentary, Alcaraz has also been receiving criticism for his party lifestyle, which was shown. He said, 'Right now my biggest fear of all is ending up seeing tennis as an obligation. Sometimes I feel like I am enslaved to tennis and that causes anxiety, frustration, doubts.' He claimed that he partied in Ibiza after his semifinal defeat to Novak Djokovic at the 2023 French Open, and it angered his agent Albert Molina. He said, 'I ended up going and they know what I'm going there to do. In Ibiza, I'm not going to lie, it's pretty much all about partying and going out.' 'I basically went there to reventar (burst), I'm not sure if that's the best way to put it, but I went there to go out. I really made the most of it because I knew I might not get another three days like that.' The 2023 season, which Alcaraz is talking about, saw him win the Wimbledon title. He revealed that he went to Ibiza again after last year's French Open. Reacting to the documentary, Roberto Bautista Agut said, 'I don't think Carlos will win Grand Slams by going to bed at seven in the morning.' But former player Rafael Nadal, who retired last year, has rushed to Alcaraz's defence. Speaking to L'Equipe, he said, 'I think there's this debate because the documentary released on Carlos seemed to reflect this.' 'However, knowing Carlos a little, I think the documentary doesn't reflect his personality or the way he lives his career. He doesn't come across as a tennis player who trains, but as someone who likes to party, who needs it, who isn't very professional. It's just not true. 'Carlos is a great professional. He's a person who works very hard to bring his tennis and his physique to the highest level. I think the documentary was approached in the wrong way, because people's perception is different from what his real life,' he added. Alcaraz is set to be in action in the French Open, and he will face Kei Nishikori in the first round on Sunday. He recently won the Italian Open, defeating Jannik Sinner in the final.
New York Times
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
What Carlos Alcaraz's ‘My Way' Netflix docuseries says about his tennis present and future
The latest offering in the genre of tennis documentary comes from none other than Carlos Alcaraz, one of two men's players most likely to own tennis during the next decade. At its heart, it questions how his future will be fulfilled. Will he do it? Can he become the greatest player in history? Is he willing to make the necessary sacrifices? Can he do it on his own terms? Those are the questions Alcaraz and his multi-headed team of handlers have put forward in this three-episode offering from Netflix. Advertisement 'Carlos Alcaraz: My Way', and nearly all the sports films like it, are not documentaries in the true sense of the word. The stars have both creative control over them and financial stakes in them. More than anything, they are feature-length commercials for the people they focus on, presenting to the world the character the stars and their teams want presented. A generation ago, Alcaraz would have collected a fat paycheck for penning a quick autobiography, as Rafael Nadal did after he won Wimbledon for the first time when he was 22. The stars of today make movies about themselves. Roger Federer has done it; Novak Djokovic is on the way to doing it. That doesn't mean they are without worth, especially for someone like Alcaraz, who rarely gives any access to his private life and speaks to the world largely while sitting in a press conference answering questions after a match. The series brings viewers into his family home, and has some sweet scenes of him sharing meals with his family and interviews with his parents. Other than Alcaraz, his mother, Virginia Garfia Escandon, comes off as the hero of the story, one of the few people who prioritizes his sanity and happiness above all else. Beyond those glimpses, these sorts of films also have some value because they reveal things their subjects may not quite realize they are revealing, or do so in a way that comes off differently than they might intend. They also clarify exactly how a star like Alcaraz and his team around him want the world to see him. That version may be far from the complete truth, but the creation of that persona has value in itself. Near the end of the final episode, Alcaraz asks himself whether he has the mindset necessary to become the greatest of all time. 'Right now, I don't know,' he says. 'I would prefer to put happiness before any kind of accomplishment, because happiness is an accomplishment.' Does he believe that? Who knows? But we know he and his team want the world to believe he believes that. In the binary world at the top of men's tennis, it's impossible to watch this packaging of Alcaraz and not think of him being set up in contrast to his top rival of his generation, Jannik Sinner, the world No. 1. Stylistically, Alcaraz and Sinner are not quite tennis opposites, but they are very different. Advertisement Sinner is an aggressive human backboard with a vastly improved serve and groundstrokes that he can crack past opponents like a whip from almost anywhere. For now though, he's mainly a baseline player who rarely varies from his strategy. Alcaraz is a tennis magician who pulls off shots that not even he knows he has in his bag when he tries them. He improvises his way through points. He has arguably the best drop shot in the game. He can come in and win from the net. Personality-wise, he wears his heart on his sleeve, screaming 'vamos' and pumping his fist and playing to the crowd; a passionate player from a country that prizes passion. Sinner grew up in a region of Italy that is culturally more aligned with Austria. German is his first language and he plays with the controlled and composed mien of the Teutonic archetype. Sinner tried to present his wild side earlier this year when he founded a YouTube channel. It showed him driving a golf cart around the Australian Open parking lot at a rate of knots. In his documentary, Alcaraz talks about wanting to get 'wasted' in Ibiza for a week after the 2023 French Open and then going on to win Queen's, the prestigious Wimbledon warm-up, before winning Wimbledon itself — having played six grass-court matches in his career. He went back this year for more of the same, against the wishes of his team including his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero. He won Wimbledon again. It's not clear if this was genuinely a major confrontation or something that got played up for dramatic purposes, but Team Alcaraz wants the world to know he's the fun guy in this rivalry, the one you should want to have a beer with. Time will tell how this plays with Alcaraz's rivals. It's one thing to win the French Open, party in Ibiza, and win Wimbledon two weeks later. It's another thing to make a movie about it. A major chunk of the first episode focuses on Alcaraz's forearm injury in the spring of 2024. Alcaraz won Indian Wells that March, but within weeks he began feeling pain shooting up his right forearm. The series shows him receiving lengthy treatments from his physiotherapist and includes the opinion of his doctor. Advertisement The main message is that he is indeed hurt, but the main impact of the injury is mental: even when it is largely healed, the psychological impact leaves him reluctant to hit his forehand at full power; one of his shortfalls is that he needs to feel completely healthy in order to play well. Ferrero and others speak to this as a kind of weakness, that great players learn how to play well enough to win when they aren't feeling their best. After his 2024 French Open win, Alcaraz said that it was finding 'joy in the suffering' that took him to the title. That may be true, but this is one of those moments of a possible accidental reveal that seems to come across in a way they may not have intended or realized. One interpretation is that there are a lot of people around Alcaraz, all with a vested financial interest in him playing as much as possible, who appear to be telling him to play and hit out on his forehand through pain. Alcaraz said as much at Roland Garros — that his team was trying to convince him that the pain he felt did not put him in danger. He spoke of trying to adjust his brain to trusting them and the health of his arm. This speaks to one of the series' main themes — to what extent sacrifice and suffering are inevitable in becoming the best in a discipline — but in this instance, it's possible that it revealed too much. These series all have their heavy-handed moments. The heaviest in 'My Way' come toward the end. It makes clear that Alcaraz needs to take breaks from the sport, lest he begin to feel suffocated. He's so good he can take those breaks, get drunk for a week and still win Wimbledon. It makes clear that he can't be serious and meticulous about his craft all the time. He needs to go home and spend time with his friends instead of a bunch of middle-aged guys. For most of three episodes those characters have been saying that he has yet to embrace some essential sacrifices if he wants to be the greatest player ever, as he claims. By the end, though, most of them — Ferrero is the exception — speak about how Alcaraz has begun to shift their approach to life. They speak of feeling lighter and less stressed out when they are around him. They are starting to understand the benefits of Alcaraz's approach to life and tennis. In other words, not only is Alcaraz the most sublime player of his generation, he's also, at 21, a kind of life guru. Maybe he is? Still, it's just, well, a lot. He is not the first all-time great to combine winning with fun. Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, who both appear as talking heads, spent plenty of time at Studio 54 in New York and at other hot spots across the globe in their heyday. Advertisement Boris Becker did his share of carousing. Craig Tiley, the head of Tennis Australia, tells a pretty good story about Djokovic and his Serbian mates partying until 5 a.m. after he won his first Grand Slam title in Melbourne in 2007. One major difference between Federer, Djokovic, Nadal and Alcaraz is that the Big Three all fell in love with their future wives in the first years of their tennis careers. Nadal and Djokovic have been with their spouses since they were teenagers. So far there is no regular companion in Alcaraz's box. Eventually there probably will be. Perhaps he will spend less time partying in Ibiza when that happens. Alcaraz shows his vulnerability throughout, and talks a lot about having moments where he thinks about quitting tennis. Lots of it is very raw and so people get to see a side of him that has only come out in glimpses to date. But much of that vulnerability is managed by the documentary, leaning on official highlights and interviews for the sharpest moments of pain. After losing to Djokovic in the Olympic final, perhaps the most painful moment of the time period which the documentary spans, it leans on a tearful interview with the Spanish ex-player Alex Corretja that most of the world has already seen. By contrast, the moments of joy — particularly after 2024's French Open title — are less stage-managed, with Alcaraz and his brother revelling in a car on the way to celebrate. He gets wound up watching Spain during Euro 2024 while he is trying to win Wimbledon at the same time, and enjoys ribbing his entourage about their varied levels of golf proficiency while he's trying to relax. Taken together, all these decisions explain the value of the sports documentary to someone like Alcaraz. The less insight he offers into his personal life outside of his own media, the more valuable that insight becomes, and the more people will want to look through the window he offers into his personality, however tinted it may be. His documentary is titled 'My Way' in service to his journey to being, he hopes, the greatest tennis player in history — but it's also a clue to how players like Alcaraz want to manage their fame and relationship with the world at large.
New York Times
24-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Carlos Alcaraz withdraws from Madrid Open with muscle injury
MADRID, SPAIN — Carlos Alcaraz has withdrawn from the Madrid Open after sustaining an injury to his right adductor muscle. Alcaraz received medical treatment near his right hip and adductor muscle during the final of the Barcelona Open April 20, which he lost to Holger Rune. In a news conference after the final, Alcaraz said that the would undergo an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedure to determine the extent of the problem. That scan showed a small tear. Advertisement 'The second set started with long rallies, intense rallies … I felt something in my right adductor which set alarm bells ringing,' Alcaraz had said after his loss to Rune. 'It's difficult to stay focused on playing, you worry about how you are going to be physically, how your health is.' Alcaraz had said that he did not think the injury would rule him out of the Madrid Open, but he did not practice after arriving in the city to do public appearances for his Netflix documentary series, 'Carlos Alcaraz: My Way.' In one of those appearances, he said that he had hoped to be fit for the event but also that he had to listen to his body. The Spaniard reached the quarterfinals of last year's Madrid Open while carrying a forearm issue. He missed last year's Monte Carlo Masters and Barcelona Open with the same injury, and also skipped the Italian Open in Rome before returning for the French Open, where he won the title. Alcaraz began this year's clay-court season by winning the Monte Carlo Masters, defeating Italy's Lorenzo Musetti in three sets.
Irish Independent
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
‘In Ibiza, I'm not going to lie, it's pretty much all about partying' – Carlos Alcaraz's secret to winning first Wimbledon
In a new Netflix documentary, "Carlos Alcaraz: My Way", the Spaniard describes how he went against the advice of his team to let his hair down on the Mediterranean island. "I had a friend who had a few days off, going to Ibiza with other friends," the now four-times Grand Slam champion said. "I ended up going and they know what I'm going there to do. In Ibiza, I'm not going to lie, it's pretty much all about partying and going out. "I basically went there to reventar (literally, 'burst' in Spanish), I'm not sure if that's the best way to put it but I went there to go out." It might not have been textbook preparation for Wimbledon, and his agent Albert Molina warned against it, but Alcaraz said he had to let off steam after losing to Novak Djokovic in the 2023 French Open semis having suffered with nerves and cramps. Ibiza's tonic paid off spectacularly too, as a few weeks later, aged 20, he beat the Serb in the Wimbledon final. "I tried to explain to him that it might not be the best idea to go to Ibiza for three or four days on vacation when he had Queen's the following week and then Wimbledon," Molina said. Alcaraz repeated the trick in 2024 with another Ibiza trip before the grass court season with his fitness coach Juanjo Moreno accusing him of being selfish. In the documentary his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero even questions whether Alcaraz has the dedication required to emulate the likes of Djokovic and Rafa Nadal. "He has a different way of understanding work and sacrifice," Ferrero said, comparing him to Djokovic. "It's so different that it makes me question whether he can really be the best in history." ADVERTISEMENT But Alcaraz has no regrets. "They always want to protect me, but I'm getting older, I'm starting to make my own decisions and that's what I want," he said. "I don't take care of myself as much, I spend a lot of days enjoying life. Maybe more than I should. "But I want to do it my way." Alcaraz, who will be 22 next month, is second seed at this week's Madrid Masters.
Reuters
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Reuters
Alcaraz reveals secret of Wimbledon titles - partying hard in Ibiza
LONDON, April 23 (Reuters) - Carlos Alcaraz has lifted the lid on his secret for winning his first Wimbledon title in 2023 and defending the title a year later -- partying hard in Ibiza. In a new Netflix documentary, "Carlos Alcaraz: My Way", the Spaniard describes how he went against the advice of his team to let his hair down on the Mediterranean island. "I had a friend who had a few days off, going to Ibiza with other friends," the now four-times Grand Slam champion said. "I ended up going and they know what I'm going there to do. In Ibiza, I'm not going to lie, it's pretty much all about partying and going out. "I basically went there to reventar (literally, 'burst' in Spanish), I'm not sure if that's the best way to put it but I went there to go out." It might not have been textbook preparation for Wimbledon, and his agent Albert Molina warned against it, but Alcaraz said he had to let off steam after losing to Novak Djokovic in the 2023 French Open semis having suffered with nerves and cramps. Ibiza's tonic paid off spectacularly too, as a few weeks later, aged 20, he beat the Serb in the Wimbledon final. "I tried to explain to him that it might not be the best idea to go to Ibiza for three or four days on vacation when he had Queen's the following week and then Wimbledon," Molina said. Alcaraz repeated the trick in 2024 with another Ibiza trip before the grasscourt season with his fitness coach Juanjo Moreno accusing him of being selfish. In the documentary his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero even questions whether Alcaraz has the dedication required to emulate the likes of Djokovic and Rafa Nadal. "He has a different way of understanding work and sacrifice," Ferrero said, comparing him to Djokovic. "It's so different that it makes me question whether he can really be the best in history." But Alcaraz has no regrets. "They always want to protect me, but I'm getting older, I'm starting to make my own decisions and that's what I want," he said. "I don't take care of myself as much, I spend a lot of days enjoying life. Maybe more than I should. "But I want to do it my way." Alcaraz, who will be 22 next month, is second seed at this week's Madrid Masters.
