Carlos Alcaraz hasn't played up to his standard recently, failing to win a trophy for six months, which is very unusual.
Alcaraz accumulated quite a few trphies so far in his career and fans got used to him winning one every now and then. That hasn't been the case in recent months as the Spaniard failed to win a trophy for over six months now; his last trophy came at Wimbledon.
Admittedly, Wimbledon trophy being a player's last one sounds pretty good, however, more concenring part is his play. He hasn't won a trophy, not because of a lack of luck but because he didn't play well enough.
He had a chance to make a final in Buenos Aires recently, but Nicolas Jarry beat him. Still, not winning a trophy is not a failure, according to his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero. He spoke with Marca assesing Alcaraz's recent results.
"He has been achieving good results. The Cincinnati tournament was a shame because we were one point away. At the US Open he made the semi-finals. When you play with such good people it is difficult to win every tournament."
Ferrero is right in the sense that his results are fine. The question is whether Alcaraz aims to be fine or great, because he certainly has potential to achieve greatness. The coach confirmed that Alcaraz does want to win as much as possible, and while that's not realistic, this recent slump isn't good either.
"For any player, not winning tournaments can affect your confidence level. Of course Carlos wants to win, but he doesn't have the stress of I want to win, I want to win."
"He wants to do things well and wants to improve in every aspect that he can, and at 20 years of age there are many. The objectives are there."
In the end, Ferrereo refused to call the recent string without a title a failure because tennis players go up and down in form, and that's normal. As long as he keeps improving, he's going in the right direction.
"Not every year you can win six or seven tournaments and that doesn't mean it will be a failure. Jordan and Tiger didn't win every Grand Slam and every ring every year. We cannot call that a failure."
"There are many positive things in a year even if you have won less. You may have evolved in aspects that can be useful for the future. That's where we are."
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