WORLD No1 Carlos Alcaraz will go home to live in his parents’ flat above a kebab shop — even if he wins Wimbledon.
Alcaraz, 20, who is said to be worth £18million, still stays at the £170,000 apartment with his mum and dad when he is not at tournaments.
PACarlos Alcaraz will go home to live in his parents’ flat above a kebab shop — even if he wins Wimbledon[/caption]
SolarpixThe tennis ace still stays at the £170,000 apartment with his mum and dad[/caption]
SolarpixAlcaraz is said to be worth £18million – pictured the kebab shop[/caption]
He has sponsorship deals with firms such as Louis Vuitton and Calvin Klein to fall back on yet choses to remain above the Turquesa Kebab & Pizza takeaway in El Palmar near Murcia, southern Spain.
Punters can pick up a doner kebab for the equivalent of £3.85 at the eaterie in the small town where the tennis ace grew up.
A giant mural has been painted in El Palmar to celebrate Alcaraz, the youngest men’s world No1 to play at Wimbledon since Boris Becker in 1987.
Top-seeded Alcaraz raced through to the last 16 at SW19 yesterday in impressive fashion to leave himself just four victories away from winning the championship.
He beat Chile’s Nicolas Jarry in four sets in front of a packed Centre Court to delight his fans.
His big breakthrough in the tennis world came last September when he defeated Casper Ruud in the US Open final, becoming the New York tournament’s youngest men’s winner since Pete Sampras in 1990.
But despite becoming one of the sport’s biggest stars he is known simply as Charly or Carlitos to locals in El Palmar.
The top floor of the family’s duplex, a minute’s drive from a rundown neighbourhood traditionally known as a no-go area for outsiders, is packed with his old tennis gear and rackets and clothes from sponsors.
Carlos, who pals say is now single after dating a local tennis player called Maria Gonzalez Gimenez, stays in one of the four downstairs bedrooms when he’s in town.
The flat has recently undergone a refurbishment thanks in part to the millions he has made from the court — with 11 ATP Tour titles to his name already.
And he is preparing to help his mum and dad move to a new home on a luxury residential estate with his growing bank balance — with prize money topped up by lucrative deals with other big brands including Nike, Babolat, BMW and Rolex.
The Sun on Sunday has been told the teetotaller okayed the purchase of three plots of land where his father, also called Carlos, whose own professional tennis dreams were scuppered by lack of money, plans to build two large villas.
One is expected to become the new parental home and the other the place the tennis pro rests up between tournaments.
The new spot is just a 15-minute drive from the current family home where his two younger brothers still live.
One, 11-year-old Jaime, is already being tipped to follow in his famous older sibling’s footsteps on the tennis court.
Alcaraz, who holidayed with Spurs defender Sergio Reguilon in Ibiza last month, admitted in a recent Spanish TV interview: “Until very recently I didn’t consider myself to be a famous person and I can say that I get nervous about practically every famous person I meet.”
Carlos Santos Bosque, who taught the tennis star in a small group from the age of four, said he knew that his young protege had big things ahead of him.
He said: “I could see Carlitos was going to become a professional tennis player when he was around nine.
“You couldn’t tell he was going to become world number one but you saw he was going to be one of the best.
“When you travelled with him, trainers from places like Marbella and Miami would approach you.
“People would want to come to practise with Carlitos.
“There’d be crowds watching when he played as a young boy.”