“I love tennis, but I love even more being the older brother of my little ones. Being the role model for them, not as a tennis player but a person. That is the most important thing — to help them learn about the things that matter in life,” Carlos Alcaraz once said. He takes that role seriously! He has three brothers—an older brother, Álvaro, and two younger ones, Sergio and Jaime. While Álvaro is often seen as Carlos’ rock, traveling with him and even hitting with him during training sessions, Jaime is now making waves of his own in the junior tennis circuit. Talk about pressure to live up to a Grand Slam champ, right? So, what does Carlos think about all this?

At just 13 years old, Jaime Alcaraz is following a familiar path to his elder brother. In 2023, he won the Rafa Nadal Tour event in Madrid—a title once held by his older brother. More recently, he finished as a finalist at the Seville stage of the same tour. With every tournament, he’s starting to attract more attention. But that rising fame has Carlos a little concerned.

In an interview with Moluskein, the world No. 3 admitted that he feels protective of Jaime as expectations start to build around him.

“I worry that people might overwhelm him too much. I don’t like people pressuring him just because he’s my brother,” Alcaraz said. “He’s too young to be labeled as the ‘next Carlos Alcaraz.’ It’s tough to have those expectations placed on him. For now, he’s doing great, and I’m proud of him. I’m not home much, but when I’m with him, I try to support him, as well as all my siblings.”

Carlos knows firsthand what it’s like to have the spotlight on you at a young age. But while he’s happy to be a guiding presence in Jaime’s life, he isn’t necessarily his little brother’s biggest inspiration on the court. So who is it?

Jaime Alcaraz’s tennis inspiration isn’t his elder brother Carlos Alcaraz

With a four-time Grand Slam champion in the family, you’d think Jaime would want to model his game after Carlos. But surprisingly, his idol is someone else entirely—Dominic Thiem. Carlos shared this little-known fact in a video for TennisTV after the Austrian tennis player announced his retirement following the 2024 Erste Bank Open in Vienna.

“My little brother plays tennis. He is a huge fan of Dominic Thiem. He used to play with his racket, not mine,” Alcaraz revealed. Thiem, the 2020 US Open champion, has long been admired for his powerful one-handed backhand and relentless baseline game. And for years, Jaime has looked up to him. “He was always watching Dominic. I hear a lot of things from my little brother, ‘I want to play like Dominic Thiem. I want to play like him with the same racket; same style,” Carlos added.

It’s a unique twist in the Alcaraz household—while Carlos is carving out his own legacy, Jaime dreams of following in Thiem’s footsteps. As for the older Alcaraz, his next challenge is just around the corner. He’s set to compete at the 2025 Indian Wells Masters, which runs from March 2 to March 16 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Carlos will enter the tournament as the defending champion, having won back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024 by defeating Daniil Medvedev in both finals. He’ll be looking to make it a three-peat this time around. With Carlos aiming for more trophies and Jaime making early waves, the Alcaraz family might just have another rising star on its hands.