Carlos Alcaraz is making his way into the Olympus of world of tennis. The talented player coached by Juan Carlos Ferrero elbowed among the best players on the circuit, who now have to deal with a new imposing rival who, despite his very young age, shows no awe towards them.
The extraordinary results obtained in this first part of 2022 have led Alcaraz to ninth place in the ATP ranking, which at 18 year-old has managed to very few tennis players in the course of history. A few days after the triumph in Barcelona, the Spaniard granted a long interview to the talk show El Hormiguero in which he revealed a curious anecdote lived shortly before his match against Alex De Minaur, in view of what would have been one of the days most demanding of his entire sporting career and that would end up being the day of his coronation at the Conde de Godó 2022.
He also talked about how to deal with growing fame, about the work of Juan Carlos Ferrero and about frequent comparisons with Rafael Nadal, his ever-present idol.
Alcaraz: “I was a complicated boy, with Ferrero constant fights”
Alcaraz on the comparisons with Rafael Nadal said: “Gradually I take it more and more normally.
I have always said that if you are compared to Rafa it is because you are doing things well. Rafa, after all, is one of the best in history and being compared to him is good, to a certain extent. On the other hand, if they compare you to him, it is because they throw stones in your backpack, but if they throw stones at me, I throw them at them.
But yes, I’m getting better and better. I’m pretty good at. I tell everyone that I don’t consider myself famous yet. When people start to recognize me, it is something that I take as naturally as possible and I like it, for me it is a pleasure that people get to know you.
This is something that only my team knows. Sunday I got up with my left foot: I fell down the stairs before playing the semifinal. Not that it was eighty, but it was a bit and I hurt myself at the height of the soleus. I was wondering if I could play well, but in the end the adrenaline made me play smoothly.
I was warming up, active, but I slipped. Fortunately, with that adrenaline I overcame it.” Today there is a good bond between Carlos Alcaraz and his mentor and coach Juan Carlos Ferrero. At first, however, their relationship was actually quite stormy: “They are there to tell me the bad things, to make me a little angry, but it’s the best thing for me.
When Juan Carlos Ferrero started with me I was fifteen and I was a complicated boy. I was and still am quite stubborn, I never saw the reason, so there were constant arguments. I was missing a lot of things: I was very messy, I got angry, I didn’t control my emotions well, my head started often, it was complicated, yes. Juan Carlos did a very important job.”
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