Carlos Alcaraz continuing his incredible journey in the tennis world! The 21-year-old lad from Murcia, Spain, made his professional debut on the Tour in 2018 and became the youngest world number 1 in 2022. Then, two years later, the 21-year-old Spaniard became the youngest man to win a Slam on each surface and now Alcaraz becomes the youngest Olympic finalist in the Open Era. A great journey for Carlitos, witnessed up close by Kiko Navarro. How does he look at his transition from a promising kid to a superstar?

Navarro, works as a coach at the El Palmar club in Murcia. He coached Alcaraz when he was between 9 and 17 years old. During a previous interview from 2023 with France 24, the coach reflected a bit on how Alcaraz was as a kid. “At the age of 10 he was a very innocent boy, without any bad intentions on or off the court, very happy. But he didn’t like to lose anything, he was very competitive.” A fierce competitor since childhood?

Elaborating more on the winner inside him, Navarro said, “He’s broken many racquets with me, he left the court crying and I had let him calm down before talking to him. He was a very bad loser, he wanted to also win at padel, at board games, and at cards. But to be number one you have to be like that.” The coach further said Alcaraz was serious about tennis from a young age. He was literally in awe of the Spaniard’s quality when he saw him hitting the ball with his father when he was just about 4-5 years old.

Navarro recalled how Alcaraz came under his tutelage. “He began to play with his dad, and one day [his father] asked me to watch him. This kid, at four, five years old, was spectacular.” Although he didn’t get ahead of himself thinking Alcaraz would be number 1 someday, “but I knew that I had a really good and different player on my hands.“

During an earlier interview, he also spoke about the young Spaniard. According to him, the love for tennis was always there, but at times, he felt Alcaraz was a bit “messy” off the court. Even his current coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, also spoke about Carlos Alcaraz’s lacking “mental stability” during a recent interview.

“We are trying to find the mental stability that he lacks” – Carlos Alcaraz’s coach speaks on one of his fewest weak points

During the 2023 US Open, we heard Alcaraz admitted to losing his mind during his SF loss to Daniil Medvedev. He said, “It was tough for me to stay calm.” He even threw the racquet on the floor. However, later on, he realized his mistakes and even told the reporters that he would talk with his team, and his coach, Ferrero on how to become a better version of himself on the court. Reflecting on the same issues, the 44-year-old Spanish coach, recently revealed that Alcaraz still has a lot of room for improvement.

“He hasn’t reached his peak, far from it. We are trying to find the mental stability that he lacks so that he can maintain a very high level over time. This will come with experience. We continue to work on this,” said Ferrero. The coach said that if someone is mentally weak, it doesn’t matter how great they are, it’ll be tough to overcome adversity and win a Grand Slam.

Even Serena Williams’ former coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, believes that Alcaraz’s peaks are high, but his lows are too low. This may be due to his mindset during the intense phases of his matches. However, if Alcaraz wins a gold medal for his nation on the Parisian clay on Sunday, he may well manage to put his name in the history of Spanish tennis! Do you know Kiko Navarro once promised he would sacrifice his long locks should his student win Roland Garros? Now, it’s time to see if Alcaraz can do the heroics twice on this surface in the same year.