Alcaraz’s Accidental Buzzcut Gets Mixed Reviews at US Open

Photo credit: Jed Jacobsohn/ROLEX

Carlos Alcaraz has a new streamlined look. Or, as Frances Tiafoe put it: “aerodynamic.” 

The Spaniard showed it off during the Arthur Ashe night session on Monday, and after his straight set win over hirsute Reilly Opelka he polled the crowd to get their opinion. 

Turns out they liked it a lot more than Tiafoe did. 

“It’s horrible. It’s terrible,” Frances Tiafoe told reporters on Monday in New York. “He’s my guy though. It’s funny. I looked at him and I was like, I guess you’re aerodynamic.” 

Tiafoe said he talked to Alcaraz’s coach, who joked that the new buzzcut made the speedy Alcaraz even faster. 

“Juan Carlos “Mosquito” was laughing,” Tiafoe said. “He was like, ‘Yeah, he’s faster than he already was.’ I was like, ‘Well, that’s a problem.’”

Alcaraz explained that his fresh buzz came by accident. He sometimes travels with his barber, but this week in New York he only had his brother available to hold the clippers. Not a good idea, as it turns out. 

“I felt like my hair was really long already, and before the tournament I just really wanted to get a haircut,” Alcaraz said. “Suddenly just my brother just – he misunderstood with the machine. He just cut it. Then, you know, the only way to fix it is just shave it off.”

Alcaraz said that deep down, Tiafoe really likes the haircut. 

“I saw the video. He showed up here saying that it is terrible,” he said. “I know he’s lying. I know he likes the haircut. He like it. He told me.” 

In the end it’s not the hair that matters. It’s the wins. 

“Some people like it. Some people don’t like it,” he 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.”