section_path: Early and personal life
section_name: Early and personal life
paragraph_text: Early and personal life
  
  Carlos Alcaraz Garfia was born on 5 May 2003, in El Palmar, Murcia, Spain, to parents Carlos Alcaraz González and Virginia Garfia Escandón. Alcaraz has one older brother, Álvaro, and two younger brothers, Sergio and Jaime.
  
  Alcaraz started playing tennis at the age of four at the Real Sociedad Club de Campo de Murcia, where his father was a tennis coach and club administrator. His mother worked as a sales assistant at IKEA. Alcaraz's father had played tennis but stopped as a teenager as he could not afford to continue.
  
  Alcaraz was discovered as an eleven-year old by Albert Molina, who convinced IMG to sign him and eventually introduced him to future coach Juan Carlos Ferrero.
  
  Alcaraz is frequently accompanied to tournaments by his father and by his brother Álvaro, who works as his hitting partner. During the tennis off-season, he splits his time between his parents' home in Murcia and his training centre in nearby Villena. His friends and family call him "Carlitos" or "Charly".
  
  Carlos Alcaraz Garfia was born on 5 May 2003, in El Palmar, Murcia, Spain, to parents Carlos Alcaraz González and Virginia Garfia Escandón. Alcaraz has one older brother, Álvaro, and two younger brothers, Sergio and Jaime.
  
  Alcaraz started playing tennis at the age of four at the Real Sociedad Club de Campo de Murcia, where his father was a tennis coach and club administrator. His mother worked as a sales assistant at IKEA. Alcaraz's father had played tennis but stopped as a teenager as he could not afford to continue.
  
  Alcaraz was discovered as an eleven-year old by Albert Molina, who convinced IMG to sign him and eventually introduced him to future coach Juan Carlos Ferrero.
  
  Alcaraz is frequently accompanied to tournaments by his father and by his brother Álvaro, who works as his hitting partner. During the tennis off-season, he splits his time between his parents' home in Murcia and his training centre in nearby Villena. His friends and family call him "Carlitos" or "Charly".