"When Carlos arrived to academy, he was like spaghetti" - Ferrero on Alcaraz's improvement
ATPTuesday, 13 September 2022 at 08:00
Updated at Saturday, 01 February 2025 at 21:29
Carlos Alcaraz's coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, revealed that the young Spanish player didn't look anything like he looks right now when he first arrived at his academy.
The 19-year-old Spaniard is improving every day and it's also because of his very experienced coach. Juan Carlos Ferrero is a former ATP World No. 1 player, and he has helped the teenager to improve under him.
The experienced Spaniard led Alcaraz to almost every success in his career and he wants to continue also in the upcoming seasons as the biggest challenge starts just now.
Ferrero spoke about Alcaraz, as per iNews, revealing that he tried to explain to the teenager that it's not always necessary to push as much as he wants to.
"Of course, all the hours that he gets on the court, obviously, it matters to play the final. As he said, there is no time to be tired at finals. It’s one of the things that we were talking about before the match."
"I tried to tell him all the time to go for a match, not have the sensation to not play his level. So he tried to push and push and push all the time. I think he tried to do it all the time."
Ferrero knows how it feels to be the World No. 1 player, so he also knows how Alcaraz will feel like. The 19-year-old will now likely have a big target on his back, with all the players trying to beat him.
"The players now, they’re going to play very motivated against him, now he’s No. 1. Before he was 2 or 3, even like this, it’s like Real Madrid-Barcelona, there’s a rivalry that gets you to increase your level. It’s what is going to happen to him against his opponents. He has to be ready."
When speaking about goals in his partnership with Alcaraz, Ferrero was very ambitious. He wants Alcaraz to become one of the best players in the history of the sport.
"I have the goal to put him on the high level of tennis. Of course, I think it’s going to be very, very difficult to achieve what they [Nadal, Djokovic, and Roger Federer] have done in tennis."
"We’re talking about 22 Grand Slams. He has only one. It's a long way still to go. But who knows? I think he has all the tennis and potential to be one of the best. All we have to do is try it."
Of course, Ferrero can make these ambitious claims because he knows how big of progress the youngster has already made.
"When he arrived at the academy when he was 15, he was like a spaghetti, very thin. We had to work. Obviously, we saw that he had very fast hands and 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."
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