The meteoric rise of Carlos Alcaraz has taken the world of tennis by storm this year but his coach believes there is still room for plenty of improvement.
Juan Carlos Ferrero, a former world No.1 player, is the person who has overseen Alcaraz’s development into one of the best players in the sport after first working with him on the junior circuit. He first watched the new No.1 play at the age of 14 at a Futures event where he claimed his first ATP ranking point. Noticing there was something special, he opted to mentor Alcaraz at a time when he also had the chance to work with most established players such as Alexander Zverev.
“He had to work a lot. When he arrived at the academy (JC Ferrero-Equelite Sports Academy) at 15, he was like spaghetti, very thin. We had to work.” Ferrero told reporters afcter Alcaraz’s maiden US Open triumph.
“Obviously we saw that he had very fast hands, very fast legs, but no muscles at all, not in the back, not in the legs. We had to work a lot. But obviously we saw something very special in him.”
Ferrero’s gut feeling turned out to be correct with Alcaraz developing into one of the best players in the world. On Monday he became the youngest player in ATP history to reach world No.1 during a season where he has won his first Grand Slam title, two Masters 1000 events, two ATP 500 tournaments and has defeated a top 10 opponent nine times.
Although in the eyes of his coach Alcaraz still has a way to go to fulfil his potential. Many pundits have already predicted a big future for him, including Mats Wilander who said on Eurosport that the Spaniard ‘isn’t going anywhere (away from the top of the sport) for the next 10 years.’
“As I tell him, I think he’s on 60% of his game. He can improve a lot of things. He knows and I know that we have to keep working,” Ferrero commented.
“Once you get to the No. 1, it’s not done and you go. You have to keep working and keep playing at a huge level in those tournaments to keep winning. He knows that and I know that.”
As of this week, Alcaraz leads the rankings with 6740 points which are almost 1000 more than second place Casper Ruud who he defeated in the US Open final. Heading into the final quarter of the year, he still has a Masters event in Paris to play, as well as the prestigious ATP Finals in Italy.
With Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal still lurking about on the Tour, it will be a far from easy task to stay at the top. However, Alcaraz states he is ready for the challenge as he eyes more silverware in the future.
“I’m hungry for more. I want to be at the top for many, many weeks. Hopefully for many years. I’m going to work hard again after this week, these amazing two weeks. I’m going to fight to have more of this,” he vowed during his press conference.
At Present Alcaraz is the only ATP player to have won five titles and registers 50 or more wins this year.
