It was his first test without Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Alcaraz couldn’t have done better. Much has been written about divorce. … the number 1 in the world and the Valencian coach, made official on December 17, and on too many occasions the tennis player’s father, Carlos Alcaraz González, has been unfairly targeted. Many have blamed him for the rift between mentor and pupil and he has had a very difficult few weeks. It was not a quiet Christmas in the Alcaraz house and only Carlitos’ departure to Melbourne and the return to the routine (pure and hard competition) calmed the waters a bit.
Ferrero’s own words did not help, as this week, with Carlos fighting to get into his first Australian Open final, he spoke to several media outlets to say that “looking at the Alcaraz bench and seeing everyone sitting is hard and difficult to accept.” He added that “my heart breaks, because it has been a very hard month” and that “I am already on the exit ramp to overcome the mourning.” Furthermore, he did not rule out training Jannik Sinner in the future, the great rival of whom he had been his player until just a month and a half ago.
Ferrero has been left alone talking about what happened with Alcaraz. «It has not been the money nor the fact of training in Murcia. “They have been internal problems that remain between us,” said Ferrero. The tennis player’s father, continuing with what he has been doing since his son arrived on the circuit, has remained silent. But that does not mean that the suffering and wear and tear have been great in recent weeks. “It was a relationship that had to end,” the tennis player concluded before making his debut in this Australian Open that he ended up conquering in a brilliant way.
Carlos Alcaraz was quite clear about this this Sunday, after beating Djokovic in the final and speaking to the audience that packed the Rod Laver Arena. “No one knows what we have been through and no one knows what we have suffered,” confessed the Murcian tennis player. The kiss on the forehead that his excited father gave him as soon as the final finished was beginning to be a classic in the El Palmar player’s celebrations. His mother, Virginia, has not traveled to Australia on this occasion. Neither did his two little brothers, Sergio and Jaime.
The new Australian Major champion had words of praise for his father after beating local tennis player Alex de Miñaur in the quarterfinals last Tuesday. «I am very happy to see him here and that we live these experiences. This was what my father dreamed of when he played tennis. “I am really proud and happy to see him making his dream come true with me,” said Alcaraz in front of his excited father, who knows a lot about tennis, but has never gotten involved in tactical issues. “Carlos has a very good work team and I don’t have to say absolutely anything about tennis, neither to him nor to his team,” he repeats in private over and over again. And he fulfills it.
Another thing is what has nothing to do with what happens on the track. He, like the rest of his family, did not like at all the image that was given of his son in the famous Netflix documentary ‘My Way’. He has always been on top of the work of the manager, Albert Molina, but since then even more so. Control the financial issue, the sponsorships that are signed and the events that your child has to attend (or not). More than a hundred messages enter his cell phone every day, often from unknown contacts, and there are times when “more than half are left unanswered,” he admits.
The father of the great dominator of world tennis juggles, who has had to delegate all his duties to the El Palmar Country Club (he was its director for almost three decades) and usually also accompanies his youngest son, Jaime, whenever he can. At 14 years old, many already compare him with his brother Carlos and his father, worried that the little boy will not be turned into a broken toy before reaching the age of majority, is always very much on top of him.
«There are many parents who do not know the difference between being a father and being a coach. When I’m at home and my father talks a lot about tennis, my head explodes. “He knows that and has always done well with me,” Alcaraz said a few months ago in a talk with one of his sponsors, Louis Vuitton. And he added: «He played tennis when he was young, tennis is his life and his passion. And that’s why he taught me to play tennis with passion and love. He told me that if I chose tennis as my way of life, I should do it with passion. “It’s a very good lesson I learned from him.” Alcaraz does it for him. And also for his father, who was ranked 708th in the ranking and did not become a professional. In his name he has already become the youngest tennis player in history to complete the Grand Slam. And the surname Alcaraz will always be eternal.
