Juan Carlos Ferrero has been voted Coach of the Year in the ATP Awards. Ferrero guided Carlos Alcaraz to world number 1 spot in the ATP Ranking.
Alcaraz became the first teenager and the youngest player to finish world number 1 in the 50 editions of the ATP Rankings. He started the 2022 season world number 32 and made the biggest jump to year-end world number 1 in history.
The 19-year-old Spanish star won his first Grand Slam title at the US Open, two Masters 1000 titles in Miami and Madrid and two ATP 500 tournaments in Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona. He finished the year with a record of 57 wins to 13 defeats.
Ferrero won the men’s title at Roland Garros in 2003 and became the 21st player in history to hold the world number 1 spot. He remained at the top of the ranking for eight weeks. He also finished runner-up at the 2002 French Open and at the 2003 US Open and won 16 ATP titles.
Ferrero spotted Alcaraz’s talent for the first time when he was just 13 years old. In 2018 Alcaraz began training at Juan Carlos Ferrero’s Equelite JC Ferrero Sport Academy.
“I saw him at 13. He came at the Academy. We trained one day, he was very small, but everyone was talking about him. He had everything he has now, but in miniature. Officially, I saw him when he got his first ATP point at the age of 14, then you could see how he competed. When he arrived at the academy at 15, he was a stick. He was fast but he didn’t any muscles. Even so, we saw something special. Alcaraz’s rise to the top of men’s tennis is happening very quickly. It’s a surprise to everyone, except to me, because I train with him every day and I know what he can do. I was sure that if it wasn’t this year, it would be the next. Now we want to keep going”, said Ferrero.
