“We’re not asking Alcaraz for a Grand Slam, we’re asking him to smile”

Antonio Martinez Cascales he built the Equelite Academy in Villena (Alicante), where a young Valencian who would later become the champion of the Davis Cup or Roland Garros, world number 1. trained Juan Carlos Ferrerowhere he maintains a personal and professional complicity that causes him to experience the phenomenon Carlos Alcaraz, with whom he travels when ‘Juanki’ breathes, as at the beginning of the campaign in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro .

Martinez Cascales He lived in Godó another Murcian success, at 19 years old making history. He studied MD at RCT Barcelona-1899.

How do you survive the time jump from Ferrero to Alcaraz?

With great pleasure, it was not easy at first to do many years of work with Juan Carlos (Ferrero) and in the academy and another boy like Carlitos came to us. It’s a lot of fun, but you also need a bit of luck for that. Lots of work, true, but with little luck.

Who will tell him when the academy came and he took the van with his tennis players?

I never had the idea to do an academy, nor did I have any idea. It’s not that I don’t want to do it, but every day is my tennis career. Work, work and work. Things come over time. That’s what I miss most about some young ‘coaches’, who have little patience. I am many. At work, work, things come. And as you say, for years doing kilometers and kilometers. More than a hundred thousand kilometers per year, some years to a hundred thousand kilometers. By van, car. Travels all over the peninsula, but also goes out to Germany, Austria, Italy. In Futures tournaments, for juniors.

Feel different?

I always say that when I bring these types of players I am as happy as in Godó watching the world number two play, who is from our academy. Happiness is about the same. No, happiness is the same. In a tournament like Godó you have a bit of fun because you made it this far.

Were you surprised to see Ferrero as a coach?

In principle, what surprised me the most about this was his professionalism, which was incredible. He has taken Zverev before and is so controlled by everyone. And now with Carlitos he has written everything, he has programmed everything. I’ve always had a reputation for being very strict, but when it comes to work he multiplies it by two or three. It is a very professional job. If you had asked me twelve years ago, before he retired, I would not have been clear that he would devote himself to being a ‘coach’ with such a vocation. Because a person cannot be a ‘coach’ as ​​he is without so many vocations.

What did you say when you decided to train Alcaraz exclusively, when you were a teenager?

It seemed so good to me, it seemed less clear to me that I should personally take a fifteen-year-old boy. When Carlitos started going to the academy, he was fourteen-odd, he came from time to time but he was getting more and more. And when Albert Molina (manager) asked us to find a coach for him, Albert and I didn’t think it was Juan Carlos. Albert didn’t even ask me, he even told me about the other great coaches we have at the academy. I didn’t find it very clear and Juan Carlos was a participant in this conversation with Albert. And he said ‘it will be mine’. And I was super surprised. In fact, in the past, he had the opportunity to catch the top players, from above, above. And I said it’s not incompatible, if this player who is number three in the world asks you to join him for fifteen weeks, there are still forty left for Calirtos. And of those fifteen weeks, in seven or eight you can take Carlitos for sparring. No, no, no, Juan Carlos told me. And I did not agree with him. But, well, that’s what makes him happy. He did that and it went well. Thinking about it, if he got one of the top players and Carlos reached the top with 18, what would he do. Are you telling others that he can’t be with you? It went to the right.

Did you see so much potential in him?

Juan Carlos also asked me, how do you see him? I saw that he had tremendous talent. And with this talent he joined a massive illusion for tennis. I have the same ingredients to make it come out right. Because that passion that Carlos has is what drives him to work, work and work. And under the direction of Juan Carlos he gives what he gives. And the talent comes from home.

What was it like in those moments?

From the very beginning it was clear to us that what he brings from home, his school, the club he comes from, especially his father, who is the school director of his club, who led him . At that time it was very anarchic but it had everything built up, quite built up. That delivery is regular, more than regular. That he gave the occasional ball of nonsense, yes, but he threw it. That the serve has improved a lot, yes. But we were very clear from the beginning that we didn’t have to take away that very creative tennis. It has to be ordered.

Is he smiling?

This is one of your keys. When he doesn’t smile, we tell him to smile. If we want a player that lasts over time, even more important.

“Carlitos Alcaraz is a cheerful, friendly man”

Is he always like this, the way we see him on a track?

He is very outgoing. I’m not saying it doesn’t have its most serious moments, it does, of course. It will take some time. But it is open, expressive. He is a happy man.

Is being brave the standard?

Tennis speaking, he is very brave. For example, getting a car is very careful. We went a few days ago for a 40 minute drive and he is not like other young people his age who drive a car. But in tennis, in any competition, he wants to win, he is very brave.

Isn’t it surprising that everything happened so quickly, there was already the US Open, which went through the No. 1, with two Godós?

It would have been faster without the pandemic. I am completely convinced. I don’t want to say it’s worse or better, I think it’s better, but in March 2020 they were in Indian Wells and I had a wild card there, in Miami and in Godó. Also in Mutua of Madrid. I would have played in Estoril. All that had to be postponed for a year. Before that, he was coming off a loss to Albert Ramos in Rio (Alcaraz’s first ATP victory). That means he’s not ready to beat everyone, of course, but he’s ready to win games that will give him some experience. And what happened, that everything stopped as we all know and his participation in Roland Garros in the Challenger that he won in Oeiras had to be played in 2021. But there is no evil that does not come for good. Everything is perfect, so far.

Does he have limits, what can we ask of his childhood?

Boundaries? We ask that you continue to delight us with your game. We’re not asking him to win another Grand Slam this year. That he was going to try, obviously. We ask him to continue playing the way he is today and to continue leaving the court as he has been doing so far.

You’ve worked with Ferrero, how are you working now after many years with Alcaraz when it’s time to travel?

He was very easy to work with. I didn’t stop working at the academy either. Communication costs a little more, but with him it becomes very easy. He hardly says anything. Or at nothing. It is easy on a daily basis.

How do you react to Alcaraz’s tennis when you watch with Ferrero?

We looked at each other and laughed. How he played, what he did…

There have also been bad moments in a long career as a coach.

We have been through all kinds of situations, but let’s not complain. Always thought that with Juan Carlos things could be better, but they have been great. Worse moments like when knee or wrist surgery have worse results. You have to see everything together and I was more than satisfied even though Carlitos hadn’t come out yet

Does the life of an academy change with the presence of Carlos Alcaraz?

Carlitos is the best commercial agent so far. For any academy.