The coach of Carlos Alcaraz has vowed to keep the rising star grounded after he became the youngest player in history to win the Miami Open men’s title.
Juan Carlos Ferrero has hailed the rise of the 18-year-old who defeated Casper Ruud 7-5, 6-4 in Sunday’s final. The achievement makes Alcaraz the third-youngest player in history to win a Masters title and he now has a win-loss record of 16-1 since the Australian Open. In Miami, he also scored wins over Marin Cilic, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Hubert Hurkacz.
Given Alcaraz’s successful start to the season, where he also became the youngest ever ATP 500 champion in Rio, many are tipping the Spaniard to become a future world No.1. Although Ferrero isn’t getting too carried away when it comes to expectations. Instead, he has outlined another goal concerning the remaining Grand Slam tournaments this season. Alcaraz reached the quarter-finals of the US Open last year.
“Let him flow. I think the goals and our thoughts about what’s gonna be and what he can reach, now it’s very difficult to say. Let him play,” Ferrero told reporters.
“I think he’s able to have a great year. Fingers crossed in Grand Slams maybe the next step (for Alcaraz) is to be part of the end of the second week.’
“But of course he has to practice and he has to stay focused because now I think it’s very easy to unfocus.’
“So the team will make a bubble and let him stay calm at home (over the coming days) and then get back to work normally.”
Ferrero first got acquainted with Alcaraz by watching him train at the JC Ferrero-Equelite Sports Academy when he was younger. He went to watch him play a Futures tournament at the age of 14 where he claimed his first ATP point. From then on, a bond began to form between the two. It wasn’t long into their collaboration when Ferrero felt his compatriot had a big future ahead of him.
“I remember when he was practicing with some of the players that they were somewhat higher in the ranking than him, he was 16 or 17, and he could adapt his game to the level of the other players,” he said.
“It meant that he has something and is going to keep working on that and keep working every day.’
“So his potential was there and I only to let it flow and let it play and keep things on a good path.”
The past few days have been an emotional rollercoaster for the 2003 French Open champion whose father Eduardo passed away recently. After going back to Spain following the news, he decided to return to Miami in order to support Alcaraz in the final. Something which the teenager had no idea about.
“Juan Carlos is a very important person to me. On the professional side and on the personal side, he helps me a lot on both sides,” Alcaraz said of his mentor.
“When we are together, we will talk about everything in life, everything in our sport, about football, as well. I consider him a coach and a friend as well. So I can talk to him about everything, I mean, in personal life, so he helps me a lot with everything.”
The next challenge for the Spanish duo will be keeping Alcaraz grounded following his triumph. He has already received a surge of interest in him after winning Miami with the King of Spain phoning to congratulate him. Meanwhile, Real Madrid congratulated the youngster in a social media post. On the front of Spain’s biggest sports newspaper (in terms of readership) Marca, Alcaraz is pictured with the caption ‘Carlos first of Spain’ in reference with him becoming the first player from his country to win Miami.
Alcaraz is set to return to action next week at the Monte Carlo masters which will kick-off his clay campaign. He is now at a career ranking high of 11th in the world.
