Juan Carlos Ferrero was among the thousands sitting in disbelief as he watched the future unfold in front of him as Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner thundered balls this way and that during an astonishing clash at the US Open in New York in 2022. A former world No. 1 and Roland Garros champion in 2003, the Spaniard knew the capabilities of the prodigy he was coaching in Alcaraz.
And he was also well aware of the potential of the red-headed Italian Sinner, a junior skiing star blessed with phenomenal timing. But he could never have imagined tennis could be played at a level so high as the aspiring champions engaged in an enthralling five set battle that finished at 2.50am.
This was the type of tennis one might see in a computer game with the setting locked at the highest level. The pair struck supercharged forehands. They hit the super sprint button when on the defence to reel in shots that would be beyond most players, with perhaps Alex de Minaur the exception.
The ingenuity and audacity of their shot making was astounding. If this was the future, and Ferrero left Arthur Ashe Stadium convinced he had gazed into an eight-ball, it shaped as particularly bright. “The other day I said to someone in the press that maybe Sinner and Carlos could dominate the tour for maybe the next ten years, from what I saw, the level that I saw the other day,” he said.
“Of course, there’s another players like (Alexander) Zverev, (Dominic) Thiem, Casper (Ruud), (Stefanos) Tsitsipas – they.
