At the Inalpi Arena, in addition to the official matches, you have the opportunity to see the tennis players up close during their training hours. About two hundred people surround the track where Carlos Alcaraz He exercises starting at 11:30 a.m. with the American Andres Martin. But at 11:45, Juan Carlos Ferrero He approaches the rival’s bench and the news breaks: “We have to stop here,” he tells the player before shaking hands with him. And we have to stop because on the other side of the judge’s chair there is a Carlos Alcaraz wrapped in a giant towel, visibly congested, coughing into another towel and looking like he wants to be in bed before anywhere else.
He continues to feel cold clutched in the chest, making it difficult for him to breathe and move. He has been like this for several days now, and on antibiotics, and he prefers to let the day of rest pass precisely for that, since he is apparently fine in tennis, but his strength, lungs and a little spirit are failing him. He came to this Masters Cup with energy, but it suddenly went away between coughs and coughs. Something that affected him a lot in his debut against Casper Ruud and he needs to prevent it from happening on Wednesday against Andrey Rublev, where a large part of his chances of continuing in the tournament are at stake.
The team leaves with their heads bowed and Ferrero remains to explain the situation: «As soon as he starts to move a little, it is difficult for him to breathe, his chest is a little tight. A bad time to have gotten sick. In Paris-Bercy he was not feeling bad. I had no mucus problems. “He’s been doing the menthol thing for a while as a routine to breathe well, it seems like it reaches you a little deeper.”
For the moment, ask for caution and patience, and not think about anything other than the boy’s recovery and not a hasty exit from this exclusive tournament. «I think we should not get ahead of ourselves (about retiring or not). We have all played under circumstances in which we did not feel well. I guess Carlos will do it tomorrow, just like many other people have done. I think it won’t go so far as to not get on the track. “That’s what I believe,” continues the coach. Hence, he does not see the Davis Cup that begins next week in danger either: “You have to go day by day. There is still a lot left. Looking ahead to next week I don’t think there will be any danger. “Colds go up and down for a few days and I don’t think there’s any danger.”
Although he accepts the major challenge of having started the competition with a defeat in two sets and having a rival like Andrey Rublev on Wednesday, he also has the urgency of adding a victory. «Tomorrow at one hundred percent it will be difficult to be there. And Rublev is a player who moves you and you have to have very good legs and right now that is what is costing him a little. Recover between point and point. Let’s see. Rublev also lost, he needs to win tomorrow. He is going to come out with a knife, knowing that Carlos is not physically one hundred percent at first. It’s a mystery. Let’s see without playing today how he recovers his body and if tomorrow he finds something better, try to give everything he has inside. There is no other option. It’s difficult, but…”
Alcaraz, who needs to have everything in order for him to smile, with a good aptitude for playing with discomfort, but cautious to offer his best version, today prefers the day of blanket and rest, without forcing and waiting for the antibiotic, with which he has already spent the required three days, has its effect and can grab that second chance that this Masters Cup always offers. «What you have to do is recover on a physical level. He knows, just like us, at the classification level, he has it more difficult than last year because he won a set in 2023, but we have to play. Imagine that he wins 6-1 and 6-1 against Rublev tomorrow and Zverev and everything is fixed. Let’s see. Let’s give it time,” concludes Ferrero.
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