Carlos Alcaraz finished the year ranked just outside the top 30 at number 32 and he would like to be a lot better in 2021.
The Spaniard first created some buzz during the 2021 Australian Summer tour where he was able to qualify for the main draw of the Australian Open. He played solid at several events before slowly breaking out over the course of several months in 2021. He finished the year by winning the ATP Next Gen Finals over Korda solidifying himself as the biggest tennis talent.
All of that was done under the watchful eye of Juan Carlos Ferrero, a former grand slam champion who was ranked number one in the world. He knows exactly what it takes to become great and speaking to Gazzetta about his protege, Ferrero admitted what the goal is for next season:
“The main challenge, as I have said on other occasions, is to
maintain the level of tennis that he played in the last part of the
season, to be competitive against the best tennis players, that is
important for his performance, it will allow us to get closer to the
top-15 in the rankings. That would be the goal for next year."
It's a fair and realistic goal but as Ferrero pointed out it requires very consistent play from Alcaraz throughout the year. Points are hard to come by and consistency is one of the best ways to do it. It's what allowed players like Nadal to be firmly ranked in the top 10 despite missing half the year of action.