Former world number 1 and 2003 Roland Garros champion Juan Carlos Ferrero has been training Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz Garfia since 2019. Under the guidance of Ferrero, Alcaraz won two Futures and three ATP Challengers. The 17-year-old Spanish player ended the 2020 season at world number 141 spot in the ATP Ranking. Alcaraz is the third best under 20 player behind Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti.
Alcaraz grabbed the headlines last February before his 17-year-old birthday, when he beat Albert Ramos Vinolas 7-6 (7-2) 4-6 7-6 (7-2) after 3 hours and 37 minutes in the ATP 500 tournament in Rio de Janeiro in his debut on the ATP Tour at 3.00 local time.
Alcaraz went on to become the youngest player to win ATP Challenger Tour trophies in consecutive weeks in Barcelona and Alicante and the second youngest player to claim three titles in Challenger history. Only Richard Gasquet was younger, when he won his third title in Neaples in 2003.
Alcaraz beat Musetti in the semifinal of the ATP Challenger in Trieste en route to winning his first Challenger title. The Spanish player coached by former world number 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero won two back-to back titles in Barcelona (beating Damir Dzumhur in the final) and Alicante.
Alcaraz has ended the season with a record of 39 wins to just 7 defeats.
Ferrero, who had previously worked with 2018 ATP Finals champion Alexander Zverev from July 2017 until February 2018, won the French Open title in 2003 when Alcaraz was just month old. Ferrero has reaised the bar and believes that Alcaraz’s next goal is to reach the top 50 next year.
“This is our desire and our objective. We are indeed working hard during the preseason in order to be able to compete with the best players and reach that goal. If he stays hungry like he is now and we are able to compete normally throughout the year, I think Carlos can rise to rise 50”, said Juan Carlos Ferrero.
The Murcia native player is well known to keen tennis fans, but the majority of casual spectators have not seen him play a lot. Ferrero thinks that there is still a lot of room for improvement and he can give an important contribution to his game. Alcaraz is planning to take part in the qualifying tournament of the Australian Open in Doha, where he could be a seeded player.
“Carlos is still quite young and he has much to improve. This preseason we are working a lot on his fitness and serve. He already has pretty good strokes and a great mentality as he relishes in the toughest moments of the match. He faces them in a good manner”.
Ferrero does not like to compare Alcaraz to the big players of the past.
“Since we started working together, one point has been made clear for both of us. He is Carlos Alcaraz. Comparisions are not great. He like to play aggressively and, as I said, he has the right mentality, but he needs to keep improving in order to be compared with the best players in the world”.
Ferrero talked about Alcaraz’s ethic outside the tennis court and his passions in his spare time.
“It is really important that he understands that his actions outside of the court inflluence his tennis as well. He watches a lot of tennis, rests and eats properly. Of course, one should always make time to have fun and to disconnect. Carlos knows how to do that as well. He has taken up golf. He goes karting and plays vidoegames with the other academy players. He is humble and kind kid who loves sport”.
Ferrero feels that he can give an important contribution to Alcaraz’s game.
“When we first started working together, he was already a great player considering his age, but like all kids, with many aspects of the game to work on. At this moment, I feel that he gains a special advantage from me in terms of timing on his shots and the experience with high stress situations on and off the court”.
Nadal and Djokovic won most of the Grand Slam titles in recent years, but Dominic Thiem broke the dominance in 2021, when he won the US Open title last September. Ferrero thinks that there will be more players who can win the Major titles.
“Djokovic and Nadal have shown us this year that they have the ambition and the body to compete for the biggest titles in our sport. If they win some more Grand Slam titles, it would not be a surprise, but I feel that in 2021 there will be other favourites, other players with increasingly good chances to win Grand Slams, not just Djokovic and Nadal as it has been before. Thiem would be one of those guys for sure. I still consider Nadal and Djokovic as favourites, but nota s much as before. I think people see that players like Thiem, Tsitsipas or Zverev already have good chances of winning against them as well”.
Ferrero is not surprised that Nadal beat Djokovic easily by the scoreline of 6-0 6-2 7-5 in the French Open final. “Nadal is the best player in the history of Roland Garros. Nobody has even come close.He has reached so many milestones in Paris. Therefore, I cannot be surprised with his superiority over anyone there. I honesly think that the top 5 can look pretty similar to this year, but it is going to be much tighter between them and the rest of the top 10.
