Juan Carlos Ferrero, coach of Carlos Alcaraz, sounds familiar this story a lot When he was one of the best players on the planet, back in 2004, an 18-year-old kid left him out of one of the games of his life. He was the Davis Cup final and the captain of the Spanish team Jordi Arrese decided that the then unknown Rafa Nadal should play against the number one in the United States before the Valencian. Many threw their hands to their heads until the man from Manacor showed that same drive that Alcaraz exhibited this Sunday to defeat the nordic Casper Ruud at the Miami Masters 1000 to give Spain a ‘salad bowl’.
Alcaraz was a baby when that match was played at the La Cartuja stadium, but very soon he saw the path that Nadal’s brilliant career followed until he won 21 Grand Slams. In this history, Ferrero was never the same again because of the injuries and the psychological blow that it meant for him. Nadal took off as the best tennis player in the history of Spain, while ‘Juanqui’ focused on his academy and on a young pearl he hunted when he was just 14 years old. That was Carlitos, as can still be read on his sports bag.
The Murcian made Ferrero – who traveled to Miami after his father’s death – believe again in tennis and in his ability to bring a champion forward. At just 15 years old, Alcaraz became the youngest player to win a match in a Challenger and since then it has done nothing but grow until achieving this great result. Only in this 2022, the tennis player has defeated three top-10 of the circuit like Stefanos Tsitsipas, Matteo Berrettini or Casper Ruud to establish himself as the sensation of the ATP ascending to the number 11 position in the ranking after the last update.
Despite the fact that many have described him as a ‘mini-Nadal’, Alcaraz has little of the most successful tennis player of all time. Charlie Brown is a bad beast with flat shots, he’s bold with his dropshots and he’s solid at net play. The great similarity that he bears with the man from Manacor is his physical extravagance above the common of mortals and that both share 1.85 height.
Surely Ferrero and Moyá, the idols of Spanish tennis at the beginning of the century and, curiously, coaches of Carlitos the first and Rafa the second, They will do everything possible so that their pupils record an exceptional clay season. The two former players also had quite antagonistic styles that will avoid future comparisons since Alcaraz is a hybrid between Federer and Roddick, while Rafa has not had a possible clone on the circuit.
Spanish tennis should be in luck for this appearance and Rafael Nadal He did not hesitate to bless him on social networks with: “Congratulations Carlitos for your HISTORICAL triumph in Miami. The first of many to come, for sure”. The man from Manacor knows very well what he is talking about. This story sounds familiar to him too.