Carlos Alcaraz, who just played a riveting quarter-final against Alexander Zverev, has struck gold with coach Juan Carlos Ferrero. Ferrero, a former Spanish tennis player, took Alcaraz under his wing when he was just 16 years old. After nearly 5 years of strong partnership, Alcaraz is a two-time Grand Slam winner and is on the verge of reaching the semi-final of another one. However, curiously, Ferrero is missing from the Australian Open attendance this year.
Juan Carlos Ferrero is missing out on the Australian Open this year owing to his knee surgery. Ferrero had an arthroscopy on his left knee in December last year. Since he hasn’t fully recovered yet, Ferrero refused to travel with Alcaraz to Melbourne. Not much information is delved on that personal front, and even Alcaraz is keeping the lid on that matter. However, there has been no sluggishness on Alcaraz’s part in showing his dominance in the tournament.
After his match against Miomir Kecmanovic, former World No. 7 Barbara Schett of Eurosport caught up with coach Ferrero to talk about Alcaraz. Ferrero, a former French Open winner himself, was mighty impressed with his pupil’s sheer dominance against the Serbian. In particular, he loved Alcaraz’s “intensity”.
In this current game too, Alcaraz was down and out by 6-1, 6-3 in the first two sets against German star Alexander Zverev. He was nearly out of the competition in the third set, before he rose from the clutches of loss and won that hard-fought set 7-6 (7-2) in tie-breakers. Rocking in his sleeveless T-shirt, he fought equally hard in the fourth set before going down.
There is no doubt about Alcaraz’s fighting spirit, and Ferrero noticed that very early on. The Spanish player-coach duo has won 12 ATP Tour tournaments, one US Open title in 2022, a Wimbledon title in 2023, and four Masters 1000 titles (Miami, Madrid in 2022 and Indian Wells, Madrid in 2023) so far. They also won the ATP 5000 event three weeks before Alcaraz’s maiden Wimbledon title in 2023.
In 4-5 years, they have won numerous tournaments, making this partnership one of the most aspirational ones. Samuel Lopez has accompanied Alcaraz in Ferrero’s absence in the land Down Under.
In-depth about Carlos Alcaraz’s coach Juan Carlos Ferrero
Ferrero might not join Alcaraz till March when the 20-year-old is at the Indian Wells. His knee will require more than enough rest before he is up and running again.
Ferrero reached the World No. 1 ranking when he won the French Open in 2003. Such is the dice of luck, he also coached Alcaraz to reach the World No. 1 rank in 2023. With that, 19-year-old Alcaraz became the youngest player in the history of the sport to reach the summit of world rankings.
Ferrero was runner-up at the 2002 French Open and 2003 US Open as well and has won 16 ATP titles in his career. With Alcaraz, he will look to scale heights that weren’t previously scaled by him or anyone else. Interestingly enough, he also coached Zverev in 2017, who just defeated Alcaraz to reach the AO semi-finals. The German star was World No. 11 at the time, and due to undisclosed differences, they didn’t continue for long.
Carlos Ferrero trains at his tennis academy in Alicante, southern Spain.
