Juan Carlos Ferrero foresaw the rise of
Jannik Sinner and said that it went from
Carlos Alcaraz training to catch
Novak Djokovic to now having to catch the new Australian Open champion also.
Ferrero has recently returned to camp Alcaraz after having a surgery and missing the Australian Open which meant that his Spanish charge didn't have his main coach on site. He said that he set him the plan to 'train like animals' to catch the duo.
His premonition came true as Sinner became the Australian Open champion and alongside Djokovic is seen as the top tennis star with Alcaraz needing to do some catching up.
“We already saw Sinner working very well two years ago and we knew that this moment was going to come” Alcaraz’s coach Juan Carlos Ferrero told
La Nacion. “He has been knocking on the door for a long time, we saw him playing tennis to win Grand Slams.
"Physically maybe it was a little doubt because he was a very thin player, but once he trained and matured, he achieved it. He is a player to keep in mind for all tournaments, an important candidate to win, just like Carlos.”
"I think his appearance was a bit like when Rafa and Roger appeared, who between them were pushing the car, until then Novak came in, who is now a bit the one pushing Carlos and Sinner.
"I told Carlos last year, when Novak won the Masters with that level, ‘Have you seen that? Now what we have to do is train like animals to reach Novak's level. Jannik is going to do it and we have to do it.’ And he answered me, ‘Yes, yes, yes, let's go with everything.’”
"In other words, it is a motivation. It's contagion,” he added. “Between the three of them, and they have to pass to the others, to [Alexander] Zverev, to [Stefanos] Tsitsipas, to [Holger] Rune, they have to feed each other.”