This piece has been updated to reflect Carlos Alcaraz’s win over Novak Djokovic in the 2024 Wimbledon final, and Spain’s win over England in the Euro 2024 final.
Sitting in an ice bath after his five-set win over Frances Tiafoe in the Wimbledon third round on Friday, Carlos Alcaraz had to multitask.
The reigning Wimbledon and French Open champion needed to recover physically after his near four-hour victory on Centre Court. He also needed to watch the Spanish football team’s latest match at Euro 2024.
Spain were midway through a hugely tense quarter-final against Germany, so Alcaraz did what he had to do: he took his phone into the ice bath and watched the game while the cold water healed his aching muscles.
”I couldn’t miss Spain, I couldn’t miss Spain,” he explained to reporters an hour or so later.
Nine days later, he is the Wimbledon champion for the second time, after beating Novak Djokovic in three sets on Centre Court on Sunday, and Spain are European Champions, after beating England 2-1 in the Euro 2024 final in Berlin.
Alcaraz’s love and respect for the Spanish national team is mutual. Earlier in the day, many of the team had been watching Alcaraz against Tiafoe, before having to get into game mode for their match against Germany. Alcaraz’s good friend Alvaro Morata, the Spain captain and centre-forward, was one of them. He is a big tennis fan and after Spain beat Germany with a goal in the death throes of extra time, he checked his phone to find out the result.
Turning to a member of staff who used to work in tennis, Morata said: “Did you see Alcaraz won in five sets?! Amazing.”
The reciprocal relationship between Alcaraz and La Roja grew and grew as they both moved closer to glory in their respective tournaments. They inspired each other to greater heights, and now Alcaraz and Spain stand on the brink of a Wimbledon/Euros double once again.
In 2008, Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer a week after Fernando Torres’ goal against Germany secured Euro 2008, the first of three straight men’s international tournament wins for Spain.
Nadal was jumping up and down watching on TV, celebrating with his team and his compatriot Feliciano Lopez, the one-time world No 12. He immediately messaged his congratulations to the Spain captain Iker Casillas, against whom he scored six goals — including a few bangers — in a charity game that year.
Two years later, it was a Wimbledon-World Cup double.
Alcaraz got his half of an historic double done a little after 4:40pm, giving him over three hours to get situated for the final, which began at 8pm GMT / 3pm ET. In 2023, he took almost five hours to beat Djokovic, and he would have been struggling to fit in a Euros final in amongst the myriad post-match commitments of a Wimbledon champion.
But Alcaraz has been doing this juggling act throughout the grass season. At Queen’s Club a few weeks ago, he admitted that he would ask to be put on early against Jack Draper so he could be done in time to watch Spain’s group game against Italy. He was granted his request and though disappointed to lose to Draper, he was at least cheered by Spain’s 1-0 win that evening.
On Sunday, nothing less than a double would do.
Alcaraz, 21, is from Murcia in south-eastern Spain. His local team, Real Murcia, are in the third tier of Spanish football and were last in La Liga just after Alcaraz’s fifth birthday. But the club he supports, like most Spaniards, is Real Madrid: the all-conquering team also supported by Nadal, despite him coming from Manacor and having an uncle, Miguel Angel Nadal, who played for rivals Barcelona for eight years.
Alcaraz’s support for Madrid is part of what links him to the Spain squad. Last year he went to Ibiza with a group of friends, including Madrid stalwart Lucas Vazquez, Tottenham Hotspur left-back Sergio Reguilon (a former Spain international who started his career at Madrid) and Alvaro Medran, a midfielder who played in the Real Madrid academy and for Spanish youth teams now playing in Saudi Arabia.
Alcaraz has also visited Reguilon at home previously, like in September 2022 when fresh from winning the US Open he went to the defender’s house in Madrid. Reguilon was on loan at Madrid’s local rivals Atletico at the time.
One of Alcaraz’s favourite players is Jude Bellingham, the Madrid midfielder who on Sunday will be trying to break Spanish hearts.
When Alcaraz beat Tiafoe on Friday he mimicked Bellingham’s trademark celebration, as he had done after reaching the US Open semi-finals in 2023. “At the moment it just came to me,” he said. “In the end, we are here in London. And a great victory deserves a great celebration.” At the US Open in September, Alcaraz said of the recently-signed Bellingham: “I’m sure that he is going to be the best player in the world in that position.”
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For Sunday, Alcaraz’s loyalties lie elsewhere, with the Spanish team that he still idolises. He is particularly close with Morata, who began his career with Madrid but now plays for Atletico. Morata has been to watch Alcaraz’s matches previously and this year a number of footballers went to see the Madrid Open in April and May. The Ballon d’Or-winning Madrid and Croatia midfielder Luka Modric was one of them, as well as goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga and Atletico midfielder Koke. The legendary Madrid and Spain forward Raul was also there, while the recently retired Germany and Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos is a big tennis fan, too. Madrid defenders Dani Carvajal and Nacho attend the Madrid Open every year.
The sport is a big deal among both the Spain and Madrid squads, especially since Alcaraz emerged as Nadal’s successor a couple of years ago. Kepa has also been at Wimbledon this tournament, watching Djokovic; a number of the Spain squad watched Alcaraz at the French Open last month, including Manchester City midfielder Rodri and Morata.
Seeing Alcaraz’s success in Paris has only heightened some of the Spanish players’ interest in their compatriot. And at their Euros base in Baden-Wurttemberg, there’s a huge screen in the living room showing sport all day — frequently tuned to Alcaraz’s matches at Wimbledon.
Over in south-west London, Alcaraz has been devouring Spain’s run to the Euros final — their first in a major tournament since winning Euro 2012. Alcaraz had just turned nine then. He was seven and five for Spain’s previous two titles.
After he had beaten Tiafoe, he asked “How is the score? How is the score?” of the Germany-Spain game at the start of his on-court interview, with an anxiety and tension that all football fans will recognise. He even interrupted the interviewer Annabel Croft to ask the question. It was 0-0 at that point.
By the time of his press conference, after watching the game in his ice bath and doing various other post-match commitments, Alcaraz entered the media room minutes after Mikel Merino had headed Spain into the semi-finals in the final minutes of extra time. The press conference had originally been scheduled for 7pm; it was moved back once the Spain game went to extra time. Alcaraz arrived grinning like a Cheshire cat and, after taking questions in English, explained to Spanish reporters how he managed to watch the game while first on the bike and then in the bath. “I was with my mobile phone, cheering on Spain in any way we could,” he said.
“I was there trying not to get my phone wet, but I couldn’t miss Spain, I couldn’t miss Spain.”
The next scheduling clash came on Tuesday, with Alcaraz up against Tommy Paul in his quarter-final in the afternoon, ahead of Spain taking on France in the Euros semi-final that evening. Looking ahead to that match last Sunday, Alcaraz said, “I have a really good relationship with a few players of the team. In particularly, with Alvaro Morata. He’s a really good friend.
“I support them and I know they are supporting me when I’m playing matches. Hopefully on Tuesday, we are not going to play at the same time. But let’s see. Hopefully, I will be able to see a little bit from the match.”
Alcaraz managed to finish his match with Paul shortly before 7pm, an hour before the Euros semi-final started. “At 5-1 in the fourth set, yeah, I thought about it,” he said with a big grin when asked whether or not he’d been wondering about getting off court in time — doing his job while thinking about the sport they’re going to watch later, like so much of the world’s population.
Over in Germany, Morata and some of his team-mates had been watching Alcaraz beat Paul as they started to get ready for their semi-final. When Alcaraz checked his phone after his win, he had a photo there from Morata of him watching the Wimbledon quarter-final. The pair spoke and Alcaraz said: “He told me, ‘OK, I’m going to talk to you because every time that we spoke, we won’. It’s kind of lucky.”
So it proved again as Spain, helped by a wondergoal from 16-year-old Lamine Yamal, beat France 2-1 to advance to the final.
Alcaraz was in a race against time to watch the match. “After I finished, I did everything in a rush just to be in time to watch a bit of Spain,” he said. Alcaraz’s post-match commitments meant he couldn’t do his press conference until 8.10pm, 10 minutes after kick-off. He was told by a French journalist that there had been a goal in the game. Alcaraz took it well that the goal had been scored by France not Spain.
Afterwards, Alcaraz did his broadcast interviews, during which Spain took a 2-1 lead. He glanced at phones and television screens as he moved from room to room and said “unbelievable” when shown Yamal’s goal. Dani Olmo’s second ensured that Spain and Alcaraz would both be looking ahead to Sunday with excitement and trepidation.
Come Wimbledon finals day, after Alcaraz had won his title, he was asked how he would watch. Half on his phone, during the Champions Ball at the All England Club, the other half with his team, on a bigger screen.
At the end of 90 minutes, and one remarkable Sunday, Alcaraz had his title — and his assist, as La Roja’s good luck charm. All that was left to say, he could encapsulate in a few short tweets.
“GOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!!! VAMOOOOOOOS!!!!”
“GOLGOLGOLGOLGOL!!!!!!”
“CAMPEONES! 🇪🇸 CAMPEONES! 🇪🇸 CAMPEONES! 🇪🇸 Qué grandes sois @SEFutbol !!! ❤️ Vaya espectáculo de Eurocopa”
Habrá que celebrar, no? 👀😂
Campeones, both.
— Matthew Futterman and Mario Cortegana Santos contributed reporting
(Top image: Getty Images; design: Daniel Goldfarb)
