{"id":176736,"date":"2025-08-26T10:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T10:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/176736\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T10:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T10:11:10","slug":"the-buzz-at-the-us-open-is-about-carlos-alcarazs-buzz-cut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/176736\/","title":{"rendered":"The buzz at the US Open is about Carlos Alcaraz’s buzz cut"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> showed up at the U.S. Open<\/a> on Monday for his first-round match with a new look: a shaved head.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz, who is seeded No. 2 at Flushing Meadows, caused a bit of a buzz with his buzz cut when he got to the tournament grounds before heading out to beat big-serving Reilly Opelka 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 in just over two hours at Arthur Ashe Stadium at night.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old Spaniard\u2019s play, as is often the case, was a cut above. He made just 17 unforced errors, won 50 of 58 first-serve points, saved all three break points he faced, broke Opelka three times and improved to 19-0 in opening contests at Grand Slam tournaments.<\/p>\n

Prior to playing, Alcaraz ran into golf star Rory McIlroy, who reached out his hand to rub the scalp\u2019s stubble. When Alcaraz played in the U.S. Open\u2019s mixed doubles event last week, he did so with a full head of hair.<\/p>\n

During the on-court interview after his win, Alcaraz tried to crowd-source opinions about the change.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to ask the people if they like the new haircut or not. Did you like it, guys?\u201d he asked the Ashe spectators. <\/p>\n

They roared their approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think,\u201d Alcaraz said, \u201cthey like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least one other athlete \u2014 and friend \u2014 did not think the new \u2018do was all that sharp: Frances Tiafoe, who lost in the semifinals in New York to Alcaraz in 2022. That was the year Alcaraz won the title at the U.S. Open for the first of his five Grand Slam trophies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s horrible. It\u2019s terrible. It\u2019s definitely terrible. That\u2019s my guy, though,\u201d Tiafoe said when asked about Alcaraz\u2019s haircut. \u201cFunny, I looked at him, and I was like, \u2018I guess you\u2019re aerodynamic.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiafoe\u2019s critique wasn\u2019t finished there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know who told him to do that, but it\u2019s terrible. From a guy who gets haircuts week in, week out, who prides himself on good haircuts, it\u2019s horrendous,\u201d Tiafoe said. \u201cBut at the end of the day, it\u2019s Carlos, and that\u2019s my guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

More AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Carlos Alcaraz showed up at the U.S. Open on Monday for his first-round match…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":176737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1466,27762,403,56388,1478,62,1464,62213,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-176736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","9":"tag-frances-tiafoe","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-reilly-opelka","12":"tag-rory-mcilroy","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tennis","15":"tag-u-s-open-tennis-championships","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115094532318642100","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}