Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz has sparked rumours he is dating a tennis player on the WTA Tour after a viral interview at the Australian Open.
Speculation over Alcaraz’s love life emerged after the Spanish world No.2 was interviewed by Jim Courier on the court at Rod Laver Arena following his fourth-round win over Miomir Kecmanovic at Melbourne Park on Monday.
The 20-year-old, tipped to dominate the sport in the coming years, was asked which players he enjoys watching across both the men’s and women’s tours but awkwardly refused to name a female player and laughed nervously about it.
‘I like to watch every match if I can,’ Alcaraz said. ‘But I love watching Daniil Medvedev, Novak [Djokovic] and [Jannik] Sinner as well.
‘Those guys, I like to watch, because every time they step on the court, they put their best level and, as a huge fan of tennis, I like to watch a pretty good, high level so those are the best players in the world I like to watch.’
Having not named a player from the WTA Tour, Courier asked him directly which female players he admires.
The crowd started laughing and Alcaraz got a little twitchy before adding: ‘Well, I watch WTA as well.
‘No, I mean, when I can obviously. When I turn the TV on, if it is WTA, ATP, whatever, I like to watch it obviously.’
Alcaraz had initially faced criticism on social media for his failure to promote any female players but tennis commentator Mark Petchey has argued there is a ‘blindingly obvious’ reason why the two-time major winner decided against it.
‘There is zero critical thinking on here (social media) or nuance,’ Petchey wrote. ‘It was so blindingly obvious why Carlos Alcaraz didn’t want to put a name to who he watched on the WTA Tour.
‘I even said it after he had finished. You want to know why players become robots in interviews, it’s precisely to stop those type of situations occurring.’
Internet rumours have since become popular that the ‘blindingly obvious’ reason is because Alcaraz is dating a WTA player and wishes to keep it hidden for now.
Former world No.7 Mardy Fish posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: ‘My man has gotta be dating someone on WTA Tour…??’
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