Carlos Alcaraz was still Carlos Alcaraz. Fresh look, with an oversized Nike baseball t-shirt and a cap, ready smile, and a clear, very sincere speech. This Friday, the number one offered his first press conference since November and everything seemed the same. But his focus when listening to the questions showed that the occasion required an extra effort. In Melbourne, a day before his debut at the Australian Open against local Adam Walton (09:00, Eurosport), Alcaraz spoke for the first time about his breakup with his longtime coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, and caution was evident in his words.
"It was a chapter of life that had to end," he commented to the international media. "I have learned a lot. Probably thanks to him, I am the player I am today. I am really grateful for these seven years," he said, although he also did not want to offer more details on the reasons for the separation.
"We closed this chapter by mutual agreement. We are still friends, we have a good relationship, but we simply decided to do it this way," added Alcaraz in a version of events that differs from Ferrero's version, who from the beginning stated that he would have liked to continue. According to the number one, the decision to change coach was part of a process that he went through with his entire team, a joint deliberation: "It was internal, it was ours. It is something we decided as a team. Being such a professional and united group, there is not a single move that we do not discuss and talk about. So it was an internal decision and in the end, it was carried out that way."
"For me, everything is practically the same. Obviously, the head coach has changed and everyone has their thoughts and methods, but I had already been working with Samu [López] since last year. Whether he is second or first does not mean that his way of training, providing his opinions, or doing things has changed. We know each other very well, so nothing has changed in my training routine," Alcaraz asserted, closing the process of having to talk about his coaching change and opening his season with the clear goal of winning the Australian Open and becoming the youngest player in history to win all four Grand Slam titles.
In fact, the player himself stated that the tournament in Melbourne is his "main goal" of the season, an intention he had never considered throughout his career. "I have focused my preseason solely on the Australian Open, to arrive here in very good shape physically, mentally, and in terms of tennis. In all aspects," Alcaraz concluded, who will rest on Friday - not train at Melbourne Park - before facing a Grand Slam debut without Ferrero, his longtime coach, in his box.