Carlos Alcaraz and His Whole Team Wear Moustaches in Shanghai After a Tokyo Pact

Carlos Alcaraz won his Shanghai opener in 66 minutes on Saturday, and the scoreline was not the story. He walked out with a new moustache, his entire team box was wearing matching ones, and he signed the television camera with the two words that explained it: Moustache Team.

Where did the moustache come from?

From a promise made in a huddle in Tokyo. Tennis365 reports that after Alcaraz won the Japan Open, he joined his coaches and his manager Albert Molina Lopez in a team huddle and was heard to say all of them would now have to get a moustache. BritBrief adds the detail fans had already clipped: after the Tokyo final win over Jiri Lehecka on Tuesday, the celebration shout from the team was moustaches for everyone.

Four days later in Shanghai, the pact was kept in full. Alcaraz took to the court against Juan Manuel Cerundolo wearing the new look, and his box, including his brother Alvaro and coach Samuel Lopez, had matching moustaches, BritBrief reports. Plenty of players change their hair. Almost none of them bring the whole staff with them.

What did Alcaraz say about it?

That it is staying. Asked by the on-court interviewer about the look after the match, Alcaraz said it is going to stay, Flashscore reports, and BritBrief puts the commitment at the full week. The camera signature was the tell that this was a planned bit rather than a whim: players sign the lens after wins every day, but writing the team’s name for its own facial hair turns a grooming choice into a group identity for the rest of the tournament.

It is the second personal-detail story to run this Shanghai fortnight, after Ben Shelton used his birthday win to announce that he hates cake. Shelton’s was a food opinion delivered on court. Alcaraz has gone one better and made his the team uniform.

How did the tennis go?

Routine, which is its own news given the turnaround. The second seed beat the 55th-ranked Cerundolo 6-3, 6-3 in the second round, Flashscore reports, in his first match since winning in Tokyo, and said he had only two days of preparation in totally different conditions. He plays Ignacio Buse or Zizou Bergs next.

The context is a comeback season. Alcaraz returned this year after more than four months out with a wrist injury, Tennis365 reports, and the Tokyo title was his first trophy since that return, Flashscore reports. Shanghai has room to become a marker for him: BritBrief notes his previous two visits ended in the last 16 and the quarter-finals, and he missed last year’s edition entirely with an ankle injury. The draw around him has already had a stranger week than his, from Wu Yibing accusing Alexander Zverev of rhythm-breaking behaviour to Hubert Hurkacz beating Novak Djokovic for the first time in nine meetings.

Why do his looks keep becoming news?

Because he keeps changing them, and he knows it. Tennis365 reports that former British No. 1 Greg Rusedski, on the ATP world feed, admitted he was not sure about the moustache and preferred the goatee, before conceding Alcaraz can get away with anything. The longer hair he returned with this season had already divided his fanbase the same way.

Alcaraz’s own position, given at the US Open and reported by Tennis365, is that he does not think about his hair much: last year’s drastic cut, he explained, happened because his brother made a mistake with the clippers and everything had to come off, and his view since is that hair grows, people will talk whatever he does, and he may as well have fun with it. The moustache pact is that philosophy with a team sheet attached.

What happens next?

A week of it, if he keeps winning and keeps his word. Every Alcaraz match in Shanghai now comes with a visual subplot the broadcast will check in on, and every team-box cutaway will show whether the moustaches are surviving the fortnight better than some of the draw has: this is the tournament where Terence Atmane’s racket throw in qualifying is still being argued about and where Jannik Sinner’s season has already ended early. Alcaraz, by contrast, has arrived healthy, winning, and running a team-wide joke at his own expense. In a comeback season, that is a useful signal to send.