Carlos Alcaraz is only ‘at 65%’ of his full potential claims Juan Carlos Ferrero
Carlos Alcaraz has already broken so many records at the age of 19, but his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero believes he still has ‘many things’ to improve.
Alcaraz had an incredible 2022, winning the US Open, two Masters 1000 titles and became the youngest ever No.1, and has continued 2023 in similar form.
The Spaniard missed the end of last year and the start of this year, including the Australian Open, with injury and returned in February where he won the Buenos Aires title.
Alcaraz returned to the top of the rankings after winning his first Indian Wells title, but has dropped back down to No.2 following his Miami Open semi-final defeat to Jannik Sinner.
One of the best points you'll ever see! ?
Simply incredible tennis between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner during the Miami Open ?? pic.twitter.com/KMx1QtGC1T
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) April 3, 2023
The Murican first met 2003 Roland Garros champion Juan Carlos Ferrero at the age of 13, before they established a coaching relationship three years later.
Their partnership has produced a total of eight titles, but Ferrero still believes there is a lot to work on, “He’s [Alcaraz] playing at the top level but obviously he’s not 100%. A tennis player has to improve things all his life and Carlos has to be able to do that for his career.”
Ferrero continued, “He has to improve his return, he has to improve his consistency on service, he has to improve small details. In Miami, he led 6-0, 5-4 and made three mistakes in a row on his serve against [Dusan] Lajovic and went to the tiebreak.”
Not only does the 43-year-old think that Alcaraz needs to work on his tennis, but also his mentality, “Even mentally: people feel he is super strong, he obviously is, but he needs to be more mature in a lot of areas on the court and off the court.”
He added, “Maybe he’s at 65% or 70% [of his full potential]. But he’ll turn 20 next month, he has to improve many, many things.”
Despite his success upon return to the ATP tour, Alcaraz has faced another injury setback meaning that he will miss the Monte Carlo Masters that are taking place next week.
I have post-traumatic arthritis in my left hand and muscular discomfort in the spine that needs rest to prepare for everything that is to come. See you in 2024 @ROLEXMCMASTERS! ?
— Carlos Alcaraz (@carlosalcaraz) April 4, 2023
While Ferrero did not go into the specifics, he did not seem too concerned by Alcaraz’s fitness woes, “Injuries in tennis are normal. We made some changes these latest times, on small details of his journey. We monitor everything, tuned up here and there.”
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