Carlos Alcaraz’s coach has revealed that they trained “like animals” after realising that Jannik Sinner was going to catch Novak Djokovic. The Italian recently won the Australian Open and has defeated the world No. 1 three times since November. And Alcaraz is using his rival’s recent dominance as motivation after falling behind with some disappointing losses.
Sinner has emerged as the man to beat this year, going undefeated so far in 2024 and losing just two matches since the US Open. The world No. 3 started the season by winning his first Grand Slam title in Australia and recently backed it up by lifting the Rotterdam trophy.
Sinner had already shown signs of greatness at the end of 2023 when he won Beijing and Vienna, beat Djokovic en route to the final of the ATP Finals, and helped Italy clinch the Davis Cup – defeating Djokovic again in the semi-final. And the 22-year-old’s surge sparked motivation in Alcaraz, who upped his training intensity to try and match his young rival.
“We already saw Sinner working very well two years ago and we knew that this moment was going to come” Alcaraz’s coach Juan Carlos Ferrero told La Nacion. “He has been knocking on the door for a long time, we saw him playing tennis to win Grand Slams.
“Physically maybe it was a little doubt because he was a very thin player, but once he trained and matured, he achieved it. He is a player to keep in mind for all tournaments, an important candidate to win, just like Carlos.”
With Djokovic still on top as Alcaraz and Sinner compete to try and topple him, Ferrero said the 24-time Major winner’s level was pushing his young contenders to train harder. He continued: “I think his appearance was a bit like when Rafa and Roger appeared, who between them were pushing the car, until then Novak came in, who is now a bit the one pushing Carlos and Sinner.
“I told Carlos last year, when Novak won the Masters with that level, ‘Have you seen that? Now what we have to do is train like animals to reach Novak’s level. Jannik is going to do it and we have to do it.’ And he answered me, ‘Yes, yes, yes, let’s go with everything.’”
