"I had my doubts" - Carlos Alcaraz's agent opens up about introducing Spaniard to coach Juan Carlos Ferrero right after break-up with Alexander Zverev
Carlos Alcaraz's agent Albert Molina opened up about the time he tried to persuade Juan Carlos Ferrero to coach a 15-year-old Alcaraz. Ferrero had recently severed ties with Alexander Zverev before he received the Spaniard's application.
Molina detailed his relationship with Alcaraz and his family in an interview with El Partidazo de COPE. Molina talked about how he came across the talented young tennis player and his role in the Spaniard's journey to becoming a star.
Alcaraz was 13 when Molina first saw him play. The latter decided to represent the Spaniard and approached Carlos Sr., Alcaraz's father. Molina convinced the father of the project and signed on as Alcaraz's agent.
When Carlos Alcaraz was 15, his team's task was to convince Ferrero to take the young Spaniard under his stride. The Spanish coach was training Zverev when he heard of Alcaraz for the first time.
"I had been telling him for a long time that I had a 14-year-old boy who I saw different things about. And we talked about how to introduce Carlos [Alcaraz] to the academy punctually because he was a plus in terms of training, technicians," Molina said (translated from Spanish).
"At that time, [Juan Carlos] Ferrero was training [Alexander] Zverev and I couldn't push him much either," he added.
However, just eight months into their partnership, Ferrero and Zverev split. Their relationship was strained as Ferrero claimed in a 2020 interview on the 3iGuales podcast that the German player was inconsistent and was not ready to win a Grand Slam. Molina took advantage of this split.
"Taking advantage of the fact that over time they ended the relationship, that's when we sat down with Ferrero and [Antonio] Cascales and the proposal came out. I had my doubts because he had come from training Zverev, who was 3rd in the ranking," he added.
Juan Carlos Ferrero reacts to Carlos Alcaraz's French Open 2024 final win over Alexander Zverev
Carlos Alcaraz defeated Alexander Zverev in a back-and-forth 2024 French Open final 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. The Spaniard lost just three of the last 15 games to earn his third Grand Slam title.
Alcaraz's coach Juan Carlos Ferrero analyzed the Spaniard's winning performance and highlighted a few flaws in his game after the match. The Spanish coach said the 21-year-old did not do everything they had decided in the locker room.
According to Ferrero, Alcaraz sometimes wants to play at a level that is not needed. He said in an interview with Eurosport:
"It seems to me that sometimes he wants to play too good. He doesn't need to play all the time at that incredible level he wants to. Sometimes, he needs to slow down a little bit, put two more, and then maybe go to the net, drop shot, but then come back, and stay more time, at the top level, mentally. Sometimes he's up and down and creates opportunities for the others that he doesn't need to."