After playing Padel in January 2023 and sustaining a cartilage injury to his right knee a few weeks ago, Carlos Alcaraz had to skip the Australian Open, which he watched from a distance. Despite a challenging start to the season, Juan Carlos Ferrero is quite clear about the course that his student, Alcaraz, needs to take: greater professionalism off the court and greater tactical understanding of it.
Alcaraz had to withdraw from his Rio de Janeiro debut because of an injury. Ferrero believes Alcaraz still has a lot to learn, particularly from Jannik Sinner, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic. Furthermore, he rejects Andy Roddick’s criticism of Alcaraz’s service.
Ferrero said about Alcaraz during an interview in Buenos Aires: He’s very young, and I think he needs to continue maturing as a young player to make good decisions in there. He needs to grow tactically, to know how to read the matches a little bit better, which is what experience gives you, to know the players well, to know what foot they are limping on or what their virtues are, to know how to enrich himself from the most direct rivals, from those who are up there, Jannik, Medvedev, Novak, Tsitsipas, and Zverev.”
Ferrero was asked about Roddick’s criticism over Alcaraz’s service, to which he replied: “A player like Roddick, who is a natural serve player, can improve very easily because it is his best virtue. It’s like if you tell Carlos to improve his forehand. It’s simple because it’s his most natural stroke. The serve is something that has had to be polished little by little and he has been doing it. Sure, it’s easy to criticize him when it’s your best virtue and you see everything as simple. The opinion is respectable, although I don’t share it completely, because Carlos has improved his service a lot. It’s something that improves little by little; it’s not so easy to have a serve with a lot of speed and a lot of direction.”
Carlos Alcaraz in 2024
Currently ranked no.2, Carlos played his last match on the 20th of February when he had to retire when playing against world no.117 Thiago Moura Monteiro in the 1st round and the scoreline was 1-1 .
Currently, during this year Carlos has managed to achieve an overall 6-3 win-loss record. Carlos Alcaraz’s most significant performance of this season was getting to the semifinal in Buenos Aires.
Alcaraz is scheduled to play next in Indian Wells (BNP Paribas Open). He will begin to play the tournament from the main draw that will commence on the 4th of March.