Carlos Alcaraz is being tipped as a future world No 1, but his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero is determined to keep him grounded and make sure he progresses step by step.
Aged 18 years and 333 days, the teenager is ripping up the record books
as on Sunday he became the youngest player to win the Miami Open after defeating Casper Ruud in the final. He is also the first Spaniard to win the tournament while he is the third youngest after Michael Chang and Rafael Nadal to win an ATP Masters 1000 event.
However, Ferrero is determined to keep the teenager focused and says the next aim is to reach the final few rounds of the Grand Slams with Alcaraz’s best performance to date a run to the quarter-final of last year’s US Open. He said:
“Let him flow. I think the goals and our thoughts about what’s gonna be and what he can reach, now it’s very difficult to say. Let him play."
Asked about Grand Slams, Ferrero obviously confirmed he believes him capable saying:
“I think he’s able to do, you know, a
great year, even let’s cross fingers in Grand Slams it’s maybe next
step, you know, to be part maybe at the end of the second week. But of course he has to practice and
he has to stay focused, because now I think it’s very easy to unfocus
and, you know, people around is gonna, a lot of “Hellos".
Ferrero also remember meeting him and how high he judged his potential:
“His potential, I know since maybe
two, three years ago, because I remember when he was practicing with
some of the players that they were somewhat higher in the ranking than
him, he was 16 or 17, and he could adapt his game to the level of the
other players. So, you know, it means that he has
something and, you know, is going to keep working on that and keep
working every day. So his potential was there, and I was only to let it
flow and let it play and keep the things in a good path."