“Oysters, how many mobiles”, he is surprised Juan Carlos Ferrero in the appointment with the Spanish press. It occurs a few hours before the pupil of him, Carlos Alcaraz, meet in the Wimbledon final that everyone expected. While the tennis player disconnects with his team and his family taking a walk through Wimbledon Park, with Ferrero there are memories of that victory at the 2022 Mutua Madrid Open, but also of that Roland Garros semifinal in which the Spaniard ended up cramping by his own nerves.
«The difference from that moment to this is learning. When you play more times against someone, you learn to manage the times. The situation is similar. Perhaps Djokovic has more favoritism here and that favors Carlos to be calmer. But you have to manage well that Carlos plays calm, fluent, as in the whole tournament, except with Holger Rune, who came out a little more tense. You have to consider the game from possible tension and nervousness. You don’t go out to a super-relaxed Wimbledon final and add the difficulties that your rival will pose for you. And from there talk, generate and build a very complete game against Djokovic that we know what he is capable of.
As Alcaraz said, there are few apparent loopholes in this Djokovic who has 92 wins in this tournament, seven titles and is on the hunt for the eighth, who knows perfectly well what this central court is like and all the hiding places to get out of the way of his rivals. For this reason, the center is not him, but Alcaraz: «We focus on Carlos, on the problems that he can generate for the other and knowing the virtues and possible weaknesses that Djokovic may have. It will depend a lot on the level that Carlos plays, we know the level that Djokovic is going to show, very high. He knows how to play this type of situation by heart, he has won seven times, he has experience. Tactically generate a very good match. They are both very good in the background, Carlos goes a little more to the net, he can have a little more dynamism and let’s see if we take him out of the background rhythm and make him not feel completely comfortable ».
For this reason, he tries to reduce the magnitude of the event: «It may be that it is the greatest of challenges, like beating Nadal in Paris, but I think that if we enlarge the giant even more it is impossible to beat him. We are going to go all out for him, forgetting a bit about the statistics, because otherwise it will be very complicated. He is a player with two arms and two legs, just like us. He has to generate a very good match to beat Carlos, we know he can do it, but we will try to be one hundred percent. Forgetting about the history, the numbers, and everything else because if we carry all that backpack behind us it is very complicated ».
What does seem key is that feeling that Alcaraz earns break opportunities that he does not let go of, like some other classmates. And it will be important against a Djokovic who also does the same: «We try with Carlos to play brave to have those opportunities. When he plays aggressive and brave he usually gets it and that is the most difficult thing against very good players, that you dare to play your game in delicate moments. Carlos usually does it well, sometimes when he misses we say that he rushes and yesterday when he hits the backhand parallel return we say how wonderful. I try for him to be brave, so that he does not lose his style at those moments and luckily in most cases it comes out ».
Ferrero himself played three games against the Serbian, but more than playing, which also, what he tries to convey to Alcaraz is what can be found once he goes out on the court: «At what times can you feel a little more pressure. Or what to do today to be calmer. In that I think he helped him. In everything else, he is a highly trained player who is living experiences very quickly that are making him grow a lot and tomorrow will be another step in his growth. We are not going to do anything very different from what we have been doing. A little bit of the gym, to be fresh for tomorrow, to try to isolate yourself a bit from the phone, from everything that comes your way. And play, try to enjoy what he does well when he generates all his tennis. And fight for the game to the death.”
There, one of the keys; the motive, the noise: «The initiative is entirely ours. I don’t know if we’ll succeed because it’s a bit of a losing battle (laughs), but I advised him to be a little more isolated from what is said about the party. All the talk and the possibilities, all that indirectly does not quite help ».
This Alcaraz is different from that of Paris, especially on grass: «Playing Queen’s was a success to gain confidence to come here feeling powerful on this surface and it has been noticed. It has been getting better and better, feeling confident. Other years we came here to see what happens because you know that he had more rivals that hurt him on grass. But this year the feeling is that he has felt very good and that he could go far.
Everything helps, from the first game against Jeremy Chardy to the one against Daniil Medvedev, but Ferrero doesn’t trust him because both the rival and the situation are very different. «We do not trust one hundred percent that it will turn out exactly the same because on a day-to-day basis everything has to be generated. In Paris we also had that feeling that he was playing very well and then he went a little wrong. What you have to do is learn well from what happened and from there do better, there is no other option if you really want to overcome what is coming your way».
2023-07-15 10:46:02
#Djokovic #arms #legs #enlarge #impossible #win
