Newly Single Carlos Alcaraz Is Soaking Up a Glamorous European Summer With Sophie Julia and Abla Sofy
Written by Will Jones
Some people do heartbreak in sweatpants. Carlos Alcaraz, apparently, does it on the Mediterranean, with a tan, surrounded by beautiful company and a view that costs more per night than most cars. If this is what bouncing back looks like, sign everyone up.
A little context for anyone who hasn't been tracking the world No. 1's personal life as closely as his backhand. For a stretch of last year, Alcaraz was rumored to be linked with Brooks Nader, the SI Swimsuit star, after the two reportedly crossed paths around the 2025 US Open. The buzz felt real enough that Nader's sister appeared to confirm it to E!, which is the kind of detail that sends a rumor into orbit. It never officially landed, though, and by this spring Nader had let it be known she's single. So the slate, as it were, got wiped clean.
Enter summer 2026, and a freshly unattached Alcaraz doing the most enviable thing a young champion can do with his off-season, which is disappear into Europe and resurface in everyone else's vacation photos looking like he's having the time of his life. Two names keep floating through the frame. Sophie Julia, the former Barstool Sports personality, has Alcaraz turning up in her Instagram Stories. And Abla Sofy, a model with serious credentials, recently slid him into a carousel on her grid. The result is a scrapbook of golden-hour glamour with the No. 1 player in the world right in the middle of it.
And the glamour really is the headline here, not any single pairing. Picture the whole tableau. Sun-drenched terraces, designer everything, a circle of gorgeous, accomplished people who all happen to be photogenic at the same exact moment. This is not a man licking his wounds. This is a man living the highlight reel, and the supporting cast is doing its part to make the whole production look expensive and effortless at once.
Take Abla Sofy, who brings real wattage to the frame. She was born in Morocco, she's based in Los Angeles, and she made history as the first Arab model to front a Guess campaign. She's had her face up on a Sunset Boulevard billboard, graced the pages of Elle Arabia, landed a role in the 2026 film Alpha, and built a following somewhere around a million strong. When she's in your summer carousel, the production values go up.
Sophie Julia adds a different flavor to the mix. The Barstool alum brings the loose, fun, internet-native energy that makes a glamorous trip feel like an actual good time rather than a stiff photoshoot. Her Stories are the candid, in-the-moment counterpoint to the polished grid stuff, the proof that there's real laughter happening between the pretty pictures. Together the two of them give Alcaraz's summer both a glossy cover and a behind-the-scenes reel.
Now, nobody is putting a label on anything, and that's part of the charm. There's no confirmation that this is romance, on either front, and the smart money says a lot of it is simply a glittering friend group sharing the same sunsets. Famous people summer in clusters. Athletes, models, and personalities drift through the same gorgeous cities, end up at the same long dinners, and document it all from a dozen different phones. What you get is overlapping footage that looks impossibly chic whether or not anyone's dating anyone.
A faint echo from last season lingers in the background, too. The Nader rumors reportedly spilled into chatter about Jannik Sinner, Alcaraz's great rival, which is the sort of subplot that keeps people primed to read romance into every new appearance. Once you've been cast in a love-triangle narrative, the captions tend to follow you around.
But strip away the speculation and what's left is genuinely lovely. A young man at the very top of his sport, newly single, choosing to spend his summer drenched in sunshine and surrounded by glamorous, interesting people who clearly enjoy his company. Whether any of it turns into something more is a question for later, and frankly beside the point. Right now Carlos Alcaraz is having the kind of European summer the rest of us only get to scroll past, and he's making it look absolutely effortless.
