Juan Carlos Ferrero, coach of Carlos Alcaraz, assured this Sunday that his pupil “is at 60% of his potential” and that he still has much room for improvement, after Murcian were crowned United States Open champions at age of 19.
He did so at a press conference after the final won against Norwegian Casper Ruud, who gave him the first ‘big’ of his career and made him the youngest ever number one in the world.
“I think he’s 60% of his game, he can improve a lot of things, we know he has to keep going. Now that he’s number one he has to keep winning, we know that and I’ll remind him,” Ferrero said.
“The rest must improve, the service must improve, the backhand in certain situations, the consistency, trying not to leave mentally. These are details that until you retire all players must improve”, he added, explaining that. that has improve.
The former player and now coach of Alcaraz expressed his pride in the work he did and felt that his pupil was born to play these tournaments.
“Carlos was born to play these tournaments, to play these games. From the first moment I saw different things in him than other kids his age and I still see them now,” he said.
He also said that it was clear to him that seeing him train every day, a major win was a matter of time: “I was sure that if it hadn’t been this year it would have been second. Now we want to continue.”
Ferrero also told an anecdote about the first time he saw Alcaraz.
“When he came to the academy he was a noodle, he had speed, but he had no muscle, but we saw something very special,” he said.
“I saw him for the first time when I was 12 or 13. He came to the academy and one day we trained, he was very young but you could see that everyone was talking about him. He had everything he has now, but small” , he added.
The coach also felt that Alcaraz and Italian Jannik Sinner are capable of “dominating the ‘tour’ for the next ten years”.
When asked if he sees Murcian capable of doing what Spaniard Rafa Nadal, Swiss Roger Federer or Serbian Novak Djokovic have achieved, Ferrero stressed that it will be difficult.
“It will be difficult for them to achieve what they have done in tennis. We’re talking about 22 greats, it’s a long way, but who knows. He has all the potential to be one of the best. What he has to do is try,” he said.
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