Five-time major winner Carlos Alcaraz created quite a buzz when he arrived at Flushing Meadows for the 2025 U.S. Open sporting a shaved head. Showing up in Queens with shorter hair is nothing new for the Spaniard, who has often gotten his summer cut before the year's final grand slam. But hair shaved to scalp? That threw tennis fans—and even pundits—for a loop.
So after Alcaraz's first round triumph in straight sets over American Reilly Opelka on Monday, a reporter asked Alcaraz what led to the new-look haircut. As it turns out, the buzzcut was the solution to a mishap that occurred when Alcaraz's brother attempted to give him a haircut.
"Quite different I guess," Alcaraz said. "I felt like my hair was really long already. And before the tournament I said that I really want to get a haircut. Suddenly my brother just misunderstood with the machine. He just cut it and the only way to fix it is just to shave it off. To be honest it’s not that good—it’s not that bad I guess."
Alcaraz said the trip to Queens would have been too far for his regular barber, Victor Martinez, hence why his brother picked up the slack on haircut duties.
The reception to the haircut has been mixed. Five-time major winner and star golfer Rory McIlroy, who he had spoke with earlier before playing, said it was a "good look." Fellow tennis player and friend Frances Tiafoe was on the other end of the spectrum, calling the haircut "horrible" and joking that at least the Spaniard was now "aerodynamic."
"Some people like it. Some people don’t like it," Alcaraz said. "To be honest, I’m just laughing about the reaction of the people. It is what it is. So I can’t do anything else right now, so I’m just laughing about everything that they are talking about my haircut."
Alcaraz will next take on Mattia Bellucci in the second round of the U.S. Open on Thursday.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Carlos Alcaraz Explains Funny Haircut Mishap That Led to U.S. Open Buzzcut .