Norma Coric described Carlos Alcaraz as “absolutely unbelievable” and he feels the 19-year-old Spaniard is here to stay. Alcaraz, who will be turning in May, is already a Grand Slam champion and a two-time Grand Slam champion, as well as the youngest No 1 in tennis history.
“What he’s doing is absolutely unbelievable. It’s very good for him that he has such a good team around him. They know what they need to do to keep him on the same level, being No. 1, or just being at the top.
He’s an unbelievable player, an unbelievable talent and I know he’s a very, very good guy, I know him very well. I have absolutely no doubt that he’s going to stay there. If you’re asking about me, I wouldn’t have been able to handle it at that age for sure,” Coric told Arab News.
Coric on why his progress slowed
When Coric was just 17 in 2014, he introduced himself to the tennis world by stunning Rafael Nadal in Basel. At a very young age, Coric made some notable results and he started thinking that everything would come easy to him.
As a result, Coric didn’t work as hard and evidently wasn’t progressing. Coric, now 26 and more mature, captured his first Masters title this past summer after beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Cincinnati final.
“When I was No. 33 in the world — probably at my best at the time I was 18, 19 — I wasn’t able to deal with it. I just got way too. I thought, it’s going to be much, much easier. I thought, okay now I’m top-30 and next year I’m going to be top-15, next year I’m going to be top-five, and the year after that I’m going to be No.
1 or top-three. And I stopped working hard. I got very complacent,” Coric explained.
