Ferrero analyzes the possibilities of Carlos Alcaraz in the first year without Nadal: "He tries to die with his style"

Among the alternatives that were suspected in the medium term when it came to an end or when it took, as it has been, an inevitable step aside, there was then no number 1 in the world today and top favorite to take over.. The body of Rafael Nadal, the champion of 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022, as the Roland Garros speaker recalled in the prologue of each one of his parties, in a proclamation that added a title year after year, he has said enough, and the one who comes like lightning to succeed him without a change of flag is called Carlos Alcaraz Garfia.

«After having won the tournament 14 times, Roland Garros partners with Rafa. Everyone is going to miss you. And the Spanish even more. It's a shame I'm in this situation. I wish him a speedy recovery and, as he said, he returns at the end of the season and enjoys his last year in 2024,” Juan Carlos Ferrero, Alcaraz's coach, comments to this newspaper.

“Nadal is irreplaceable. No one in history has done in any tournament what he has done at Roland Garros. Leave an empty space without anyone having removed you from the place. It hasn't even started its decline. Last year he won two Grand Slam titles”, says Emilio Sánchez Vicario, former number 7 in the world, winner of the 2008 Davis Cup as captain and now in charge of the academy that bears his name.

At the time of applying to take the baton, Alcaraz, who debuts this Monday against the Italian Flavio Cobolli, 259th, coming from the previous phase, endorses him, at the age of 20, on May 5, already having a title of the Grand Slam, the United States Open achieved last September, when he was invested for the first time number 1, the youngest since the creation of the ranking in 1973. He is endorsed by ten titles, including four Masters 1000, two in Madrid, where he certified a remarkable tour of land, in which he also revalidated the title in Barcelona. It guarantees him not only to be the best, but also to mark a considerable distance with anyone who dares to come his way.

hard to stop

«He is a very complete tennis player, with a lot of power. When he is able to deploy his entire repertoire it becomes difficult to play against him. He can be better than many on the circuit, but there are players who are going to stand up to him for a long time, “warns Ferrero. Stefanos Tsitsipas, Holger Rune, Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner are the biggest opponents mentioned by the 2003 tournament champion. None of them lacks credit but none will break into Paris as Alcaraz does on this occasion, eliminated in the quarterfinals in 2022 by Alexander Zverev. «Winning Madrid and Barcelona as he has done makes him one of the favorites. It is not like other years, when Rafa was there and he came very well prepared. This year the tournament is more open and there are several players who can win, “continues Ferrero. “What happened in the previous edition is not going to happen to Carlos, when he was slow to wake up against Zverev, after two sets.”

There is a sensitive transformation that the protagonist has been the first to highlight. Alcaraz admits that he is a completely different player from that of 2022, the course of his outbreak, and this does not mean that he has modified his essence on the pitch, but that he interprets the game in a different way. «He reads the matches a little better and enters the track more prepared. He is turning years old, he is playing matches and living experiences that harden him and make him grow. When you play important matches in important tournaments, you grow faster”, Ferrero values.

The player from El Palmar appears in Paris with 30 wins and three losses in 2023, the last of which was in the third round in Rome, against the Hungarian Fabian Marozsan, 135th, once guaranteed with his debut victory against Albert Ramos-Viñolas open his third stage at the head of the world ranking. “It is never good to lose, but the truth is that the rest has been good for all of us after what we had on the ground tour,” says the Valencian coach.

«What he projects is something spectacular», says Sánchez Vicario «It is not only the distance that he marks in the game, but also that he has capacities that allow him to do everything, something extraordinarily pleasant for the spectator».

Djokovic's weight

Andrey Rublev won his first Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo and Daniil Medvedev won his first title on clay in Rome. The cartography of the land this season launches two champions in landmark events that in principle do not count for much to be crowned at Roland Garros. There is Novak Djokovic, double champion of the tournament and winner of 22 Grand Slam titles, the same as Nadal, who must be looked at with the utmost respect despite his poor balance in previous tournaments.. “He will always be a candidate to win. There are not many people trained to achieve it to the best of five sets. Here it is always more difficult to defeat the good guys. It will be a stone in the draw and I am sure that it will have a great tournament. Sure”, predicts Ferrero. Nole, the third seed, travels on the same side of the field as Alcaraz. They are called to meet in the semifinals.

The Spaniard presents the ease of his triumphs in Barcelona and Madrid, with the immediate rebirth after the physical problems that prevented him from concluding 2022 and playing the Australian Open, the imprint and progression of his overwhelming game, to appear better than anyone in the pole. It's a polished diamond. “See things more clearly. He has always been characterized by learning quickly. When one gets older, he interprets situations with his own eyes, “analyzes his coach. From the outside, it gives the impression that his greatest adversary may be inside himself, that on some occasions, not too many, everything is said, he still finds it difficult to reconcile the joy in his behavior with a defined pattern.

“Paradoxically, perhaps his greatest difficulty may be that he has too many weapons, handles many options, which at some point can confuse him,” says Sánchez Vicario.. «Even in the case of such a creative and explosive tennis player, there must always be order on the court. He is a very dynamic player, who tries many things. When he manages to order his entire repertoire of blows, which is almost always, is when he achieves results.. As a coach I don't close the doors to anything. He has a certain style of play and he tries to die with that style,” explains Ferrero.

The generational duel

With the advantage on all fronts, he also dominates the generational combat. Sinner and Rune follow in his footsteps, but are still far from hunting him down.. «If at a tennis level they can be relatively close, in terms of presence on the court Alcaraz makes a considerable difference in reactions and emotional management. Sinner creates difficulties for him and sometimes puts up with him, but lacks his aura. Rune is emotionally a time bomb and in seven games to the best of five sets it is normal for him to explode sooner or later”, analyzes Sánchez Vicario, who believes that those trained to give him the greatest battle may be among the already established tennis players, such as Djokovic and Zverev.

«Roland Garros takes you to the maximum demand in all facets: tactical, technical, emotional. It is enough to see the difficulties of the majority of the tennis players in Madrid and Rome, extended to two weeks, and the best of three sets.. In Paris, in addition, you play five, “he concludes.