(Provided by Tennis World USA)
Juanjo Moreno, Carlos Alcaraz’s physiotherapist, told the background of the historic success obtained by the Spaniard on the lawns of Wimbledon.What happened at the Roland Garros a few weeks ago left a sign, but gave Alcaraz another reason to keep improving.
In the match staged in Paris, the young star from Murcia was unable to compete against Novak Djokovic to his full potential starting in the third set, when cramps sidelined him.
Moreno: “Alcaraz has learned his lesson”
Moreno explained: “We knew that in Wimbledon the pressure would be similar or even higher than the match played at the Roland Garros, and that Novak Djokovic would not make things easy.
As the minutes went by, as one of the managers of that area, the tension increased thinking about the fact that the cramps could return.But, at the same time, I have a lot of trust in Carlos’ ability to learn. We did a great job and I was confident.
In Paris the cramps arrived after two hours; while at Wimbledon he played for almost five hours without any problems.This shows that Carlos learns quickly from past experiences. The Roland Garros proved to be a very important tournament for him.
The problem in Paris, as explained by Carlos at the press conference, was more psychological than physical.It’s hard to adapt so quickly to grass. Even though clay courts and hard courts are different, the moves are similar.
On grass, however, many things change. Carlos doesn’t slip on the grass, it was a challenge both for him and for us.If we weren’t surprised, we wouldn’t be human. Our goals are big and we always try to prepare Carlos to win.
There are no other goals on the mind of the whole team. It’s amazing what Alcaraz has done in terms of historicity, but we work every day to win and we expected these results.”Djokovic has admitted that he has never challenged an opponent as complete as Alcaraz; words that Moreno particularly appreciated.
“It was special to hear these fantastic words from a sportsman like Djokovic, a tennis legend.I’m proud that someone like Novak addressed those words to my athlete. Tennis is a very physically demanding sport. You have little time to adjust to the conditions, the schedule is tight and you never know how long a single game will last.”
