At each point, in the face of any tension, nerves, doubts, anxiety, concern or joy, there is no moment that the gaze of Carlos Alcaraz do not cross with the Juan Carlos Ferrerositting in the front row of the players’ box next to the tennis player’s manager, Albert Molina. The connection between the former number 1 and the current number one is maximum. “He is my second father, the first on the court & rdquor ;, the young Murcian tennis player always says, grateful for the help of his coach. The trust and respect between the two has grown on the track and far beyond the training sessions and fundamentals of the game. Alcaraz should carry the denomination made in Ferrero, who this Sunday could not avoid tears when hugging the Wimbledon champion.
Since Alcaraz’s manager decided that this boy who won everything in the lower categories needed an indispensable quality leap to become a professional and proposed to Carlos and Virginia, the tennis player’s parents, to let their son Carlitos go to the Equalite Academy from Ferrero, 115 kilometers from El Palmar (Murcia), where they lived, everything has gone smoothly.
mill He had proposed to Antonio Cascales, coach and director of the Ferrero academy, that option to improve Alcaraz’s training. Initially it was not planned that Ferrero would take over the tennis player. The former world number 1 had come out of a bad relationship with the German Alexander Zverev, but as soon as he saw Alcaraz train he decided to direct him. “I saw that he had great tennis conditions but especially human. He was a boy who wanted to learn & rdquor ;, says the Valencian coach. Ferrero did not hesitate to leave the big circuit to travel with Alcaraz to small tournaments, travel by car or train, live in small hotels and even pay to have training balls in the clubs where the tournaments are played.
“I got fully involved in Carlos’s project when he was 15 years old, to be able to work in the right way so that he could level up. Quick, without haste, but without pause & rdquor ;.
Ferrero was able to start from scratch with a diamond in the rough on his hands. make it yours “The way of training is very mine: Maximum intensity in work with very clear objectives. Being a good, humble boy is parental education, he comes from home, and I haven’t had to touch anything & rdquor ;, he explained a month ago at Roland Garros.
spectacular road
In five years the road could not have been more spectacular. Alcaraz has jumped from world number 579 to number 1, becoming the youngest tennis player to do so in ATP history, with 12 titles, including last year’s US Open and now Wimbledon.
Ferrero does not hide his pride in success but insists he wants to go step by step, not rush. “I am trying to form someone similar to me. Calm and cold on the track but at the same time, a winner », he values.
🥹☺️ Those tears from Ferrero, that emotion from his family and his people is right now for half of Spain pic.twitter.com/AkXFthuu6C
— Victorio Calero (@VCaleroM) July 16, 2023
He wants to maintain the values of that boy who greeted him timidly, amazed, the first day he entered his academy. “The most important thing for me is to be the same person. Carlos is very humble, very simple and very close. Life is changing for him but he remains the same.”
Ferrero knows that the circuit is voracious, superficial and that it can ruin the life of any tennis player, especially if they are young. “We want him to stay up there for a long time, playing well, competing and winning tournaments, but without rushing.”
The Valencian coach also experienced a spectacular progression in his tennis career and has experience of how to deal with the situations that Alcaraz lives. He avoids talking about the future, about great records. “I like to think about now, not about how many Grand Slams he can win. He has many possibilities to do it, but Carlos knows that you have to go day by day, keep working and evolving, thinking about other things is a mistake.”
success in grass
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Ferrero was confident in Alcaraz’s chances of performing at Wimbledon. “Since I saw him for the first time on grass, I had the feeling that he could play very well and go far & rdquor ;, he said before the Wimbledon final.
Alcaraz had played 17 games on grass until the Wimbledon final. His adaptation has been incredible. For a month now he has been focused on learning. “I have seen many videos of Federer and Murray. It is brutal how they play on grass & rdquor ;, he said when he landed in London. He had just won the Queen’s tournament, a victory that gave him “confidence & rdquor; to feel that he could do very well at Wimbledon and repeat a hundred times that he believed that he could “win the title although emphasizing that the favorite was Djokovic & rdquor ;. He broke the forecast.