“All the hard work has been rewarded”, Juan Carlos Ferrero thanks fans after being voted as ‘Coach of the Year’ following Carlos Alcaraz’s historic season
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Juan Carlos Ferrero with Carlos Alcaraz
Spanish former World No.1 and current coach of Spanish World No.1 Carlos Alcaraz, Juan Carlos Ferrero has thanked all his fans and well-wishers after grabbing the prestigious “Coach of the Year” awarded by ATP. This is the first time he has won the award after a series of splendid performances by his player Alcaraz who won his maiden Grand Slam and finished the year as World No.1 this year.
As in Ferrero’s words, “This year has been an amazing year, Gladly, all the hard work has been rewarded with results and now with this amazing prize. I’m extremely happy to win the ATP Coach of the Year award. Thank you all of you for the support.”
Ferrero also explained the feelings he had when he saw Alcaraz at 13 who was still a start, “I saw him at 13, He came to the academy, we trained one day, he was very small, but everyone was talking about him. He had everything he has now but in miniature. Officially, I saw him when he got his first ATP point at 14 years of age, then you could see how he competed“
Ferrero also said that this year is not a surprise for him as he always believed in Alcaraz’s abilities from the tender age of 15, “When he arrived at the academy at 15, he was a stick, he was fast but didn’t have any muscles. Even so, we saw something very special It’s happening very quickly, it’s a surprise to everyone, except to me, because I train with him every day and I know what he can do, I was sure that if it wasn’t this year, it would be the next. Now we want to keep going“.
The rise of Carlos Alcaraz
Carlos Alcaraz became World No. 1 at 19 years, 4 months, and 7 days, displacing Lleyton Hewitt‘s nearly 21-year-old record of being the youngest at 20 years, 8 months, and 26 days. Apart from his maiden Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open, Alcaraz collected 4 other titles this year, which include 2 Masters 1000 tournaments.
Despite having had to withdraw from the ATP finals due to an abdomen injury, the youngest world No.1 had one of the greatest ever teenage tennis seasons in Men’s tennis.
The US Open run of Alcaraz made the tennis world in a vow as he had to win 3 5-setters back to back before reaching the final. The pre-quarter-final 5-setter was against Croatian Former US Open Champion Marin Cilic. Then in the quarter-finals, he had to deal with his ‘biggest rival’ as of now – The Italian World No.12 Jannik Sinner. The match set the record as the second-longest match (5 hours and 15 minutes) in US Open history.
The semi-final 5-set triumph was against the French Power House Francis Tiafoe. Then in the finals, he defeated 5th seed Casper Ruud in 4 sets. Both players were battling for World Number 1 position as well in that match. Alcaraz is having a win-loss record of 57-13 this season, including 5 ATP titles.
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Vipul Payattuparambil
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