Ferrero on Alcaraz: "He's very talented but still has a lot of room for improvement".

Carlos Alcaraz has added another title to his prestigious list of honors in recent days. The 21-year-old Spaniard was crowned champion at the ATP 500 tournament in Rotterdam after defeating a tough Alex De Minaur.

Under the tutelage of Juan Carlos Ferrero, the youngest-ever world No. 1 in the ATP rankings as of September 2022 has gone from strength to strength.

However, Ferrero believes that his protégé still has room for improvement in a number of areas.

"At 21, there's always room for improvement. Carlos is a very talented player, but he obviously still has a lot of room for improvement.

There's still a lot of work to be done mentally and in terms of consistency in matches. And that's also the good thing. We have a very clear motivation and objectives, of which he is fully aware.

The Australian Open was a bit of a disappointment for everyone. A lot of players would sign up to reach the quarter-finals, but with Carlos's potential, we're always thinking about going further.

The victory in Rotterdam was a confidence-booster for the tournaments coming up," Ferrero told Marca.

The man, who has just turned 45, also spoke of his rivalry with Jannik Sinner, author of a magnificent year in 2024.

"He's a very complete player, he was fully aware of what he needed to improve in recent years and he's managed to make rapid progress.

He has a very experienced team around him, which helps him enormously. He's become more mature in his game, and that showed last year.

He's going to be a real rival who's going to demand a lot from Carlos, who clearly can't rest on his laurels.

You have to be constantly on the lookout for ways to improve if you want to compete with Sinner, but also with Zverev, Tsitsipas, Rublev and Djokovic, who is of course always there," concluded Ferrero.