Carlos Alcaraz's Issues 'Mental And Not Tennis-Related' Says His Coach

Tuesday, 24 December 2024 at 18:30

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byErik Virostko

Carlos Alcaraz has to address some issues if he wants to become an even more successful tennis player, and his coach was able to pinpoint those.

In 2024, Alcaraz was able to win two Grand Slam titles to grow his collection of majors to four already. For a 21-year-old player, that's a great success, but he still ended the year as the World No. 3 player on the ATP Tour.

Jannik Sinner, who won the same amount of majors as Alcaraz, ended the season with almost 5,000 points more than his young rival, which shows the incredible gap between them at non-Grand Slam tournaments.

Alcaraz's struggles with consistency were in the spotlight in 2024, but even with the lack of success away from majors, his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, thinks that the 2024 season was a success, as he said in an interview with Punto de Break.

"The year you win a Grand Slam is always a great year. If you have won two… well, that's impressive. Winning a Masters 1000 like Indian Wells or an ATP 500 like Beijing strengthens the season even more, but of course, you have the other animal (Sinner) who has won everything he has won."

Ferrero was told that because of the lack of success at majors, some might suggest that Alcaraz's 2024 was not a successful season. He had a strong response to that, saying that the team thinks the exact opposite.

"We think the opposite: it has been a spectacular year. Winning a Grand Slam is very, very difficult, so winning two means a magnificent season, although there are always things that can be improved, such as off-court or training certain aspects."

"Carlos is very aware of the things that he has to improve every year, I see him becoming more mature every day when it comes to being a professional and doing things more thoughtfully. I like how he is facing the preseason, I see him very focused on the things that he wants to improve or the things that did not go so well this year."

During the off-season, Alcaraz worked on his serve, but at the same time, he addressed one of the biggest issues, which is his mental side.

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To avoid having those ups and downs, the Spaniard must become more consistent, and according to Ferrero, that's not a tennis-related issue but, instead, a mental problem.

Alcaraz is aware of that, and that's why he tried to address it to become an even better player in 2025, especially after the resurgence of his young rival Sinner.

"Improving those things that I mentioned to you. Those ups and downs in the matches, for example, he knows that he has to improve them, because it is something mental and not tennis-related."

"In tennis he has a very high level, as soon as he matures a little in his commitment to mental improvement I think he will go up a step. Every season we try to improve him in that aspect, so we will see how it goes in 2025."