ATP Journey
Alcaraz impressed Ferrero for three years: “He improved everything”
The world’s second coach enters the US Open semifinals
September 4, 2025
Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Juan Carlos Ferrero in Carlos Alcaraz’s Player Box at the 2025 U.S. Open.
Staff by atptour.com/es
Carlos Alcaraz has reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open without dropping a set and is producing Division I tennis, even meeting the most demanding members of his team.
Juan Carlos Ferrero’s analysis of the current campaign highlights the second place in the maturity PIF ATP rankings in court, regardless of his solidity and the way he handles emotions at critical moments. The coach, who has been with Alcaraz since his early days, saw very clear signs that his players are now competing for evolution.
“Really, we always knew he was very good at tennis, but the truth is, I believe spiritually that he is better than ever,” Ferrero said on Wednesday. “I would say that in this game, he started to reach the huge potential he has. We know that technically, he is very, very, very, very good, and we’ve been just getting ups and downs for the little.
“Although he has experience, he’s still young, so he’s still in the process of maturity and improvement. But that’s what we demanded of him and what we’re practicing. He showed little glimpse of improvement, and maybe this game is the most obvious. He’s in five, six, six, six, seven unforced mistakes and I think it’s the most obvious compared to other games.
Looking back and combining Alcaraz today with Alcaraz, who won the championship in New York three years ago, when he beat Casper Ruud to win his first major in his career and also became the youngest world No. 1 in history.
“I said he improved,” Ferrero said. “He’s improved a lot in terms of maturity, and spiritually, he has a better understanding that tough situations are where you have to produce the best level. The serving and forehand are also much better. If the player hasn’t made progress at all for three years, the coach is terrible.
“He has incredible skills and is on an incredible trajectory. No matter what you ask him to do, he will achieve very quickly. It’s both good and bad, because you can be overconfident. Just like any player, you really have to keep the most important attitude.”
Carlitos👉Semi-finals❤️🔥@usopen | #usopen pic.twitter.com/kn2yolfm8f
– ATP Tour (@atptour) September 2, 2025
After Wimbledon, the team had important conversations about priorities. Jannik Sinner won the trophy in the final of four matches to win his first championship at the All England Tennis Club, but that was also a valuable lesson for Alcaraz.
“Team chats are often important,” Ferrero notes. “In that chat, we talked about Wimbledon finals, how he felt about it, what we saw, what obviously had to improve, how we should approach the swing of the United States, etc. The normal situation in the team.
“I think it was a very interesting, very active chat, he knew it as well as we were, and it was very motivated for the rest of his time.”
There is no doubt that this motivation is. After the summer, Alcaraz reappeared in Cincinnati to win the championship and has so far reached the semi-finals of the U.S. Open. It was a very different situation a year ago when he struggled to move on from the Olympic gold that had his fingers slipped over in Paris in 2024.
“This swing is a big difference from last year, and he’s here feeling fresher,” the 22-year-old coach explained. “The rest and those holidays did serve him a month and a half, and it felt stressed with Roland Garros and Wimbledon. For him, these holidays were necessary to reset his mind, be with his people and be on a spiritual level, he could continue to compete at the highest level.”
Novak Djokovic will be on the other side of the network, which is absolutely necessary, and is likely to have the toughest test of the Spaniard in the last Grand Slam of the year.
Editor’s note: This story is from atptour.com/es
