It sometimes feels as if the world never turned before the existence of the Big Three of Federer-Nadal-Djokovic. But there was a stretch in the early aughts when the likes of Lleyton Hewitt, Gustavo Kuerten, Marat Safin, and Andy Roddick ruled the scene. It was the "New Balls Please" years, when the ATP began marketing a new generation of players to replace the likes of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.
There was a tousle-headed Spaniard among them, raised along the twisting Clariano River an hour’s drive south of Spain's Valencia, an area known for its woolen cloth, brandy, almonds and olive oil. A pesky, speedy clay-courter, Juan Carlos Ferrero earned the moniker "Mosquito" for his ability to buzz from corner to corner, baseline to net, always making his opponents play the extra ball. He would reach back-to-back Roland Garros finals in 2002 and 2003, winning the Coupe des Mousquetaires in his second go-round.
Ferrero could bring it on hard courts, too. He would take down Hewitt and Agassi in succession to reach the final at the 2003 US Open, falling short against Roddick in the title tilt, 6-3, 7-6, 6-3. Despite the loss, he would rise to No. 1, the first Spaniard to do so since Carlos Moya in 1999.
By the time he retired in 2012, Ferrero had won 479 matches and 16 career titles.
As we’d discover, Ferrero also had an eye for diamonds in the rough. In 2007, he bought an old farmhouse outside Valencia and revamped it into what today is the luxury Ferrero Boutique Hotel. He also launched the successful JC Ferrero-Equelite Sports Academy. And in 2018, he spotted a raw but talented 14-year-old Carlos Alcaraz playing a nearby tournament, and thought enough of him to take him under his wing.
It looks like Ferrero is onto something. Earlier this summer, Alcaraz captured his first ATP crown in Umag at 18—the youngest tour titlist since Kei Nishikori in 2008. He achieved a career-high ranking of No. 54 last month, and on Friday, he introduced himself to the sporting world in earnest, winning over the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd in dramatic fashion and stunning No. 3 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in a fifth-set tiebreak, living up to the hype and then some.
Player-turned-broadcaster Jan-Michael Gambill likened his all-court play to a video game. The vanquished Tsitsipas said he had never seen anybody strike the ball so ferociously.
It’s a delicate balance for Ferrero: When you’re working with a gifted talent like Alcaraz, an uber-aggressive player who loves to go for big shots, how do you manage that? How do you get the message across to your apprentice that it’s sometimes okay to go all-out, while at other times you want to rein in some of that power and play the percentages?
“Carlos is a player that likes to be very aggressive. Since I met him when he was 14, 15, I knew of his potential, about his level,” Ferrero told USOpen.org. “But to be that aggressive, you have to control yourself and be able to manage all the shots that you’ve got. That’s not easy.”
Watch: Juan Carlos Ferrero's Saturday press conference, ahead of the Round of 16.
“He’s starting to manage all these things on the court,” Ferrero added. “Off court, he’s still 18 years old and he needs to get more mature, to control his emotions out there, to control when to go with 100 percent of his potential or when to go 80 percent or sometimes play with a lot more spin or more flat. He’s on the way to putting all these kinds of things in order, but I think he’s in a good way to do it.”
“He’s playing very aggressive,” said Rafael Nadal, who defeated Alcaraz in their only career head-to-head in Madrid this spring. “He has a lot of potential. He already has a great level of tennis, but I really believe that he’s going to be a fantastic player in the near future. When somebody at his age is able to do the things that he’s doing, it’s because you have something special. At the same time, he’s humble enough to keep working. He’s passionate about the game. I really believe that he’s a complete player. He’s brave, he’s able to go to the net very often. Great forehand, great backhand. He needs to improve his serve a little bit, but he’s just 18, so he has plenty of time.”
Nadal then threw in a culinary reference.
“I mean, when you make a salad and you are putting ingredients inside the salad, he has plenty of ingredients to become a great player.”
Alcaraz has grown used to the comparisons, especially those to Nadal. But the newcomer insists he’s his own man. (Okay, maybe a little like Roger Federer.)
“Honestly, I don’t copy any style of players. I just play my game,” he said. “But if I have to say one player that is similar to my game, I think it’s Federer. I think it’s similar to my game, trying to be aggressive all the time with the forehand, backhand. I think I have to improve the serve a little bit. But I think it’s similar.”
Ferrero and Alcaraz will now prepare for his match against German qualifier Peter Gojowczyk, a spot in the quarterfinals of the 2021 US Open in the balance. Ferrero’s been there before, of course, once an aggressive player who had to learn to rein in his considerable arsenal. Who better to guide the way?
