Novak Djokovic is human, and this is how Juan Carlos Ferrero (Valencia, 1980) tried to convey it to his pupil Carlos Alcaraz (Murcia, 2003) to measure himself as the tennis player with the most Grand Slams in the history of tennis. The Serbian’s statistics are wild Wimbledon, but the Valencian, one of the best tennis players of his generation, had full confidence in the young man from El Palmar, current number one in the world. “If we enlarge the giant even more, it is impossible to win it,” Alcaraz’s coach highlighted in the preview in a meeting with the Spanish press where he spoke about how he managed the pressure of facing a legend like the Serbian, an immense challenge that happened to him invoice in the semifinals of Roland Garros after seeing how he could not give his best version, mentally, tennis or physically.
“You have to do a mental exercise to be calmer, more fluent and go all out,” Ferrero stated in the previous one. Things have changed a lot in recent months, going from the dirt of Paris to the grass of London. Carlos has the gift of the great at 20 years old. “You do what you have to do so that the long games are done, better with your service,” Ferrero told Alcaraz before the start of a duel that began by devastating Djokovic but that little by little the Spaniard was raising based on confidence and concentration. The virtues of the Murcian mean that with the exact guidelines he knows when, where and how to hit.
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If the Murcian is today the biggest star in the tennis firmament, it is partly thanks to Ferrero, who has taught him to manage the times as well as instilled in him to isolate himself from what surrounds a match of this size. “He is not afraid. His way of thinking from a long time is what has really made him improve, move up and climb so quickly in this very difficult world ». They both know each other well since they have been working together since the former number one in world tennis began training him at the age of 14. Eleven titles have come out of this union, two of them Grand Slams.
«He was a kid who played very well, but there was a lot to do physically and mentally. It motivated me a lot to be able to build a player like this from scratch, “commented Ferrero months ago, accepting without problems since he is not recognized today for his emblematic Davis Cup, but for being the architect of Alcaraz’s meteoric rise.
The Valencian tennis player, one of the four Spaniards to manage to lead the top of elite tennis along with Carlos Moyà, Rafael Nadal and his pupil. The ex of the ‘Spanish Navy’ is one of the main reasons that explain the milestones of Carlos Alcaraz. To be successful, it is a fundamental condition to have an environment that knows how to manage all kinds of situations, and in each tournament it is observed how the Murcian turns to the Onteniente player to serve as a guide on where to hurt his rivals, key in the to improve in the game or the blows to the rest or in the serve when a player puts him against the ropes like Novak Djokovic in this Wimbledon final, in which the Serbian began sweeping the first set.
The first thing he did to celebrate having won Wimbledon against the man who had done it up to seven times, was to go directly to the stands where his squires were and in whom he has full confidence to face moments of various kinds.
The ‘boss of all’ of them is Juan Carlos Ferrero, whom the Murcian thanks for his work on every occasion and tournament: “Without him it would not have been possible to get here, I can only thank him,” acknowledges the tennis player who a few weeks ago in Queen’s achieved their first trophy on the green, and now at the ‘All England Club’ it became part of their history.
«It is in his DNA to run and fight for all the balls, it is difficult to stop him. Seeing him train every day makes us know what his potential was, but what has made him grow at this speed has always been to think big, “said Ferrero during the clay court tournaments. The Valencian, once retired, had offers to train the best tennis players on the circuit, and he opted to dedicate himself to a teenager who he saw very special things in.
«I saw it for the first time when I was 12 or 13 years old. He came to the academy and we trained one day, he was very small but everyone talked about him. I officially went to see him compete when he got his first ATP point, at the age of 14. I saw that match, in which he played one set very well and in the second set he hit a huge mess. But he gave off those differences that you can see in a player. At that age he was a bit messy because he made a lot of drop shots, he already made a difference with his right hand but he was spaghetti on a physical level. We had not even spoken to be able to work with him, but I already liked him, “said the former tennis player in September, when his pupil won the US Open and became the youngest ATP number 1 in the history. Ferrero himself had been the last player to storm number one at the US Open and he also did so in 2003, the year Alcaraz was born (19 years and four months).
He trained Alexander Zverez for eight months when the German occupied the top five positions in the world, and left him due to his lack of discipline, whom he criticized for having many distractions outside the tennis courts. At the end of this relationship, he began to train Alcaraz with only 15, who had the European Under 16 Championship as the best endorsement in his record. «For me it was a personal commitment and professional growth also as a coach to work with a kid from a young age and prepare him well, to improve. I proposed it, I told my family and they agreed and the closeness also helped.
«At the beginning there were many coaches and many people who when I took Carlos told me: ‘Where are you going? If you have been number one in the world. How are you going to mess with a child to travel by car from here to there? “said the former tennis player last May in El Larguero.
“He was able to train other great players, but he chose me,” Alcaraz acknowledged after reaching the top of world tennis, aware of the sacrifice made by the Valencian, with whom he has forged a good friendship that goes beyond the professional to be the key that It has taken you from promise to reality.
The Spaniard arrived at Wimbledon with doubts inherent in inexperience and has shaken them off in just a few days. Always from less to more. Excellent on hard courts and clay, the Spaniard is now also emerging as a phenomenon on grass.
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