The quarterfinal match that Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev will play this coming morning (starting at 03:00, Movistar) will not only be the most complicated that the Murcian has faced so far at the US Open, but it will also be very special. for Juan Carlos Ferrero, coach and sports ‘father’ of Carlitos. And it is that the Valencian, before starting to work with Alcaraz, took the German’s career for eight months. That was in 2017, when Zverev was already in the Top-10 of the circuit. And things did not end well between them.
«I soon realized that I did not like things. When a tennis player earns a lot of money when young, he can get dizzy. The environment of the player and their role is key at that moment. They have too many distractions off the track. Telephone, social networks, friends who appear from one day to the next… I see that they are fooling around with Instagram and do not think about tennis as it happened in our time, “explained the Valencian coach, who was number 1 in the world for eight weeks in 2003.
«Zverev was, for example, three hours on the court, but he could not do quality training for more than an hour and a half. Then it was all protests, stoppages, shouting and anger. At the time, we collided due to his lack of punctuality and the lack of respect for the team members. And I decided to leave it, “said Ferrero after finishing his eight-month stage as the German’s coach. When he left him he was number 5 in the world. Today, after overcoming a serious injury, the tennis player from Hamburg is 12th.
“We had a fight”
Zverev did not bite his tongue either after breaking his relationship with Ferrero. “He was very disrespectful. We had a fight after the Australian Open, which was fine, that concerns both of us. But in one of the final discussions he involved the whole team and there was a moment when (Ferrero) was very disrespectful to everyone and I had to end that relationship,” Zverev explained a few months later.
The data
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3-2
It is the unfavorable balance for Alcaraz in the previous confrontations against Zverev, one of the few tennis players on the circuit who has won, for the moment, the face to face with the Murcian player.
“He grew up in Spain, where the coach is like a god and when he says ‘silence’, then you have to be quiet for the next two hours. With my personality that is somewhat difficult. I won’t shut up,” admitted the German, who has already faced Alcaraz five times (three wins and two losses for Zverev). There is good chemistry between them and they have even shared training on some occasions. They did it during Wimbledon 2021. However, his relationship with Ferrero is distant.
Despite this, Zverev later worked with two other Spanish coaches. He first enjoyed a brief stage with David Ferrer. The current Spanish Davis Cup captain accompanied ‘Sascha’ at Roland Garros, the Paris-Bercy Masters 1000 and the Masters Cup in London. He also mentored him from a distance at the US Open. Everything was going well, without friction, but the situation due to the pandemic complicated everything and the one from Jávea decided not to continue by his side in 2021.
Neither with Bruguera
In mid-2022, Zverev returned to work with his father, who was also a tennis player, after he took a step back at the end of the 2021 US Open. In those months he was working with Mikhail Ledovskikh and his brother, Mischa Zverev. And then the Catalan Sergi Bruguera joined his work group, who broke his relationship with the German last May, after the Hamburg player was eliminated in the round of 16 of the Mutua Madrid Open.
“He has the ability to win everything. It’s a matter of time. Sooner or later it will be the ‘Sascha’ of yesteryear”, Bruguera predicted then. “You can say that I’m back,” Zverev released yesterday after winning an epic battle over a cramped Sinner. The German is a very serious threat for Carlitos, who tonight is playing for him and – a bit too – for Ferrero. The one from Ontinyent changed an elite player for a child. And the bet has paid off.
Djokovic kills Fritz in three sets and is already in the semifinals
One piece of data sums up what Novak Djokovic is: his rival in the US Open quarterfinals, Taylor Fritz, had only conceded a ‘break’ in his first four games and had not lost a single set. Yesterday, when the clock marked game time, the American, ninth in the ranking, was sitting in the chair with a lost look, dazed and with four ‘breaks’ against him. That is Djokovic. You can be serving like never before, you can be playing enormous tennis, at home, with the public on your side, that the Serbian brings you down to Earth in the blink of an eye. At game time, Fritz trailed 6-1, 2-1 and Djokovic was preparing to serve. His plan had blown up. It is what Nole has. That it is immense, that he disarms you and denies you your first Grand Slam semifinals. Djokovic, on the other hand, breaks the record for appearances in the semis of the big four. Because the Serbian ended up winning 6-1, 6-4 and 6-4 and qualified for his 47th Grand Slam semifinal. It will face Frances Tiafoe or Ben Shelton.
#Carlos #Alcaraz #Ferrero