The 22-year-old debuted a dramatic hair transformation ahead of his first match at the 2025 U.S. Open Aug. 25, and the new 'do makes him look nearly unrecognizable.
In a video shared to X Aug. 25, Alcaraz -- wearing a cutoff white Nike tank bearing the number "90" and coordinating black shorts -- stepped onto the court at New York City's USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center sporting a completely shaved head. And while the athlete may have ditched his longer black style for the fresh buzzed look, his deep-colored roots were still slightly visible.
Following the unveiling of his epic transformation, fans admitted to having to do a double take. As one user wrote on X Aug. 25, "Lmao took me a second to realize."
Of course, a fresh look isn't all Alcaraz brought to the court at his first match, where he faced off against American player Reilly Opelka.
The Spanish tennis star -- who last won the U.S. Open title in 2022, becoming the youngest man to accomplish the feat -- shared that he's also adopted an evolved game strategy for this year's face-offs.
"It is the same Carlos," he told Vogue in an interview published Aug. 25, "but I've got to improve a few things if I want to stay at the top of the game for a long time."
As for what techniques he's changed to make him a more challenging player? Alcaraz teased that fans will just have to tune in to his matches.
"There are also some more specific things that I'm working on, but I won't tell you about that," he said. "But yeah -- a lot of players have noticed my ups and downs in matches and it's something that I'm working on."