It had been a magnificent year, eight titles (Roland Garros and US Open, number 1), 71 victories, and they were aiming for another even better one. But on December 17, Carlos Alcaraz took another direction: without Juan Carlos Ferrerohis sporting ‘father’ since he was 15 … years and who sculpted his talent until he won, at the age of 22, six Grand Slams. He has taken the lessons, the discipline, the technique and the tactics, and he wants to face the future and continue conquering the world after emancipation. To start, Alcaraz takes flight at the Australian Open.
Since the news broke, two separate statements that, in an oblique way, contradicted each other, Alcaraz has been living in his bubble: training in El Palmar, surrounded by his family and the fans who gathered around his practice sessions, summaries of the year without Ferrero, Christmas days with his family, exhibitions, and finally days of adaptation to the heat, the surface and the competition in Melbourne. There he did have to face his first match, a press appearance before a room eager to get his version and thus explain a surprising divorce due to all the successes he had achieved.
But the great unknowns were not revealed, if anyone expected it. Content, cap pulled down over his eyes, protecting himself from the first hits of the course, he expressed himself without delving too deeply into the million-dollar question: why did he break up with Ferrero? «There are chapters in life that you have to close, we decided that way. I have to say that I am very grateful for these seven years that I have been with Juan Carlos. I learned a lot. Probably thanks to him I am the player I am right now; but we decided this internally, to mutually close this chapter. “We are still friends, we have a good relationship.”
Regarding who decided to part ways, Alcaraz stressed the “mutual agreement” and closed ranks around his people: “It was something internal to us and it is something we decided. Being such a professional and united team, there is not a simple movement that we do not all put on the table. “It’s something internal.”
Responses that reinforce the message that he already expressed that December 17 on his social networks, but that continue in contrast to what his coach explained, wanting to continue and certainly hurt by this separation. So, the real reasons are still behind the scenes.
Alcaraz closes this chapter and opens another; in your corner, Samuel Lopezwho had already been assisting him for two seasons, so there is no sudden jump either. «Everything is practically the same. Obviously, with a change of head coach, everyone has their thoughts and their way of working. But I have already worked with Samu for a whole year, as a second or first year, it does not mean that he has not contributed his opinions and I already know them very, very well. And it doesn’t change anything in the training routine. We have tried to carry out everything we wanted to work on in the preseason and I feel very good about it. Above all, it is the way to not lose focus, to maintain the intensity, which is something I have been emphasizing in recent years.
«The team is the same as it was, except Ferrero. The training sessions have gone well, I feel very good, very excited to start the tournament with the team I have now. I think I’ve had a great preseason. “I feel prepared to compete at the highest level,” he managed to say, waiting for the game to begin and the results to silence all the commotion.
Alcaraz thinks about the present, about his path, about that Adam Walton79 in the world, with which he debuts in Australia (Sunday, around 10:30 a.m., Eurosport), the tournament he has long coveted after being eliminated in the quarterfinals in the last two editions. «Debuting in a Grand Slam with a local tennis player, I know that people are going to be on his side, but I am really looking forward to starting the competition. I’ve seen a little bit about what rivals I have on my side, but I haven’t paid much attention to them. I only focus on myself, on seeing myself on the court in front of Walton, against whom I have already played although it was on grass. “I’m really looking forward to seeing if I’m moving forward.”
If he wins his first Australian Open he would snatch a place named after Jannik Sinner, champion in 2024 and 2025; and he would become the youngest tennis player to win the four Grand Slams, and the challenge fuels Alcaraz, who begins the year of his emancipation today. And what better way to premiere it.
