Carlos Alcaraz came back to the US Open to do what he does best: win, entertain and make the crowd feel like they have wandered into the center of the tennis universe. But of course, the louder the stage, the louder the noise around him — and the latest burst of Alcaraz girlfriend speculation is being driven by that July mega-yacht sighting with Claudia Canals on the Amalfi Coast.
That is the reality here. Alcaraz has not confirmed a relationship, Claudia Canals has not publicly stepped into the frame, and the source material does not pretend otherwise. Even so, once a 23-year-old superstar is spotted getting cozy on a yacht in July, then returns months later to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center after a lingering wrist injury, people are always going to connect the dots whether those dots are officially there or not.
From Vanity Fair to Flushing Meadows
This story did not begin at Flushing Meadows. In May, Alcaraz told Vanity Fair that he sometimes wishes he could have more moments for himself. That is a pretty normal thing for a 22-year-old guy living an unusually public life, and it sounds even more understandable after five tough months away from competition because of injury.
Then came July, when he was spotted getting cozy on a mega yacht with Claudia Canals on the Amalfi Coast. By November, Elena Vesnina was openly asking him at the ATP Finals whether his heart had been taken, and Alcaraz answered with the kind of line that only deepens the mystery: “No, I’m free. I’m free. I’m free.”
That does not confirm anything. It does not deny everything either. It is the sort of answer that leaves the internet exactly where it likes to be: suspicious, excited and convinced it is solving a puzzle that the player himself has not actually set out for public consumption.
The tennis still comes first
Still, the tennis matters more than the gossip, and Alcaraz made that plain at the 2026 US Open. He beat Russia’s Roman Safiullin 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on September 2 and spoke with real relief about being back on court after a brutal spell out with injury. “It’s been a really tough five months for me,” he said, adding that he could not have picked a better tournament to return to than the US Open in New York.
That is the bigger point. Alcaraz said he missed the crowd, the energy, the competition and everything else that makes major tennis feel so alive. He also said that while he is living the dream life, he sometimes wishes he could have more moments for himself, “to do things a 22-year-old guy would do.” That line tells you almost everything you need to know about why private-life chatter sticks to him so easily.
He is one of the biggest names in the sport, but he is still young enough for the public to treat his personal life like part of the entertainment package. That is not fair, exactly, but it is inevitable. And when Claudia Canals appears to be absent from Flushing Meadows, the speculation only gets louder.
For now, the cleanest answer is the simplest one: the relationship remains unconfirmed, Alcaraz has said he is free, and the real story at the US Open is that he is back competing again. Everything else is just the noise that follows a star this big.
