Carlos Alcaraz ‘copied a little of Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic’

Carlos Alcaraz’s transformation from a clay-court specialist to Wimbledon champion has been quite remarkable, but just how did his team manage to turn him into a formidable grass player in such a short space of time?

At the start of the 2023 grass-court season Alcaraz was 4-2 on grass with his only experience on the surface in the two previous Wimbledon editions as he lost in the second round on his debut in 2021 before reaching the fourth round last year.

But it was a different player who turned up in England this year as he won his maiden grass title at the Queen’s Club Championship and followed it up with an extraordinary run at Wimbledon.

In an interview with Eurosport, his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero explained the key behind the 20-year-old’s transformation on grass as he revealed they took leaves out of the Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Djokovic grass-court books.

“It’s very difficult to say, I think he takes things on board very quickly, and we’ve also seen a lot of videos of players that move very quickly here,” the Spaniard said.

“So, we copied a little of Murray, Roger and Novak, and he tries to copy a little bit the same. In the end, it wasn’t easy, but we did it.”

The way he played against Djokovic – a man who was 115–18 on grass and 92–10 at Wimbledon before Sunday’s showpiece match on Centre Corut – was astounding and former world No 1 Ferrero says Alcaraz’s win over Daniil Medvedev in the semi-final provided a good springboard.

After being blown away in the opening set of the final, Alcaraz clawed his way back as he won the second set tie-breaker before threatening to run away with the match.

Djokovic, though, won the fourth set before the young Spaniard held his nerve to secure a brilliant 1-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 victory in four hours and 42 minutes.

“We said that he would have to play more or less the same level that he played against Medvedev,” Ferrero added.

“Medvedev is on the baseline all the time and Carlos likes to use the slice to bring the opponent to the net. That was something we needed to do against Novak, so it was one of the keys to break his rhythm.

“In the end, I think he was very brave in the way he finished the match.”

READ MORE: Brilliant Carlos Alcaraz stats after his Wimbledon win: Ending Novak Djokovic’s streaks and more