David Ferrer: "Mentally, Alcaraz reminds me of the young Nadal"

Although he hung up his racket three years ago, David Ferrer (Xàbia, Alicante, 40 years old) is as fine or more so than when he was a tennis player.

"Could be, could be," he says.

“I am going to do the Titan Desert with some friends and I have become a fan of cycling.

It's just for fun, ”adds the director of the Godó, who has held the position since he retired and these days parades through Pedralbes like a brush.

In one of the few truces that his role grants him, the man from Alicante attends EL PAÍS next to the club's swimming pool.

He assures that he does not miss the adrenaline of the competition and, when asked about the book he now has in his hands, a good reader, he cites

: “I had not yet read much of Almudena Grandes and I wanted to.

The truth is that I like him a lot”.

Ask.

Now she directs and watches from the sidelines, but does she still feel like a tennis player?

Response.

From the first day I retired, I assumed that a stage was ending there and I don't think much about it, because I'm happy with the new life I have and with what I do.

When I remember it, I remember it fondly, but not nostalgically.

I no longer feel like a player.

Now it's my turn and the truth is that I like to do other things different from what I've done all my life, for a matter of learning and exposing myself to different situations, because I think it makes you better.

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See you always, Ferrer

R.

And don't you miss the adrenaline of the track?

R.

I lived tennis with great intensity, and when I decided that I was not going to play anymore it was because I no longer had that intensity.

I wanted to finish in a correct way, with a good level, and I was comfortable in that sense.

I know what it is to live at that intensity that is needed to be at my best, and I had already given everything;

From then on, I continue to live with intensity, but at a different stage.

The transition is not easy because you have done the same from the age of 12 to 37, so you have to have other hopes and other motivations, and I had them.

Q.

In some way, has it been rediscovered during that process?

R.

I have done things that I did not have in mind, but when they offered me the Godó thing, it is what made me most excited because in the end, this tournament is part of my personal history.

I feel fulfilled.

Before you worked for yourself, but now you work for other people and you owe it to the tournament, you are on the other side.

It's okay.

I think it makes you better.

This week I have more stress than usual, but what I do I do as honestly as possible.

In that sense, I sleep peacefully.

I fondly remember my time on the track, but not with nostalgia.

I no longer feel like a player.

I like exposing myself to different situations to grow

Q.

El Godó is an exception, very singular;

an islet in these very business times.

How do you explain your particularity?

R.

It is unique because it is a club tournament, and of these there are few left;

I would say Queen's or Roma, because although the latter belongs to the Italian federation, it is still a club.

Here the tournament belongs to Barcelona and its members, who live it with great intensity and with great affection;

that is very nice and there is a lot of history behind it.

Here many of the workers are children of people who had worked for the tournament before.

I have experienced that since I was a child and being able to maintain it with a tournament of this magnitude is wonderful.

In that sense I am very

.

I have a big responsibility, really.

P.

Taking into account the dynamics, can the system come to devour a tournament of these characteristics?

R.

I hope and wish not.

Q.

In terms of competition, where is tennis?

R.

Rafa, Roger and Novak have set the bar very high, and it seems that we are looking for

again , but I think that now the results are going to be much more disparate and the titles are going to be distributed more.

The circuit will be more even.

It is played faster, there is more force and less tactics.

P.

But, speaking in silver, do you enjoy more or less than before?

R.

I like that there is a little more rally, but what is now is also legal.

The winning [blow] is sought more and it is like that.

Now the players are stronger and taller, and they don't need tactics so much because with the service it's enough for them.

David Ferrer, during the interview with EL PAÍS.

/ LF CASTILLEJA (RCTB)LUIS FELIPE CASTILLEJA

P.

It seems that tomorrow it will be difficult to find more

or players with a strategic profile, do you see it that way?

R.

There will always be;

if not, there's Schwartzman, for example.

In my time there were also gunners and in the end you adapt, but it is true that there will be fewer and fewer tactical players.

When I look at the photos of the Masters Cup now I see that I was the shortest...

P.

Alcaraz

is creative, but at the same time

powerful.

Boris Becker says that it must be dosed, that it can burn.

Are you afraid that expectations may harm you?

R.

It is normal that there are expectations, because he has just won Miami and entered the

with only 18 years.

It is normal that now he has more pressure, but I think he handles it well because he is a different player.

Mentally he is very well furnished and the setting of him is good;

In addition, he has Juan Carlos Ferrero there, who has also experienced something like this and it is easier for him to transmit what he can feel.

Honestly, I'm not worried about that.

P.

Beyond the technique, you have also shown that mentally you are very strong.

A.

He reminds me a bit of Rafa [Nadal] when he was young.

He has that ability to correctly take on pressure.

When you're that good, you necessarily have to go through this point where they point at you.

The better you are, the more pressure you have, and those who are the best handle it better than the rest.

Rafa, Roger and Novak have done what they have done because they have assumed that they are the best in all tournaments.

In that sense, I think that Alcaraz is going to be able to assume it;

you just have to see the statements he has been making.

He has a different maturity.

I, for example, did not have much less that maturity at his age.

They are special people.

I wouldn't say that they were born, or maybe they were, to play tennis, but of course they have landed in the perfect sport because of who they are.

Ferrer, this week together with the footballers Ferran Torres and Pedri.

/ RCTB

P.

What is it that most impacts you about him?

R.

I am impressed by the capacity for evolution.

For example, a year ago he didn't get half as good as he does now;

now he can take you perfectly at 200 kilometers per hour and, oh my, get that in just one year... And then he changes rhythms, goes to the net and has an ability to analyze, adapt and understand the game that very few do. have.

P.

Taking into account the landscape of the future, do you consider that you can become the great dominator?

R.

It could be… It is already the three in the

;

there is Nadal, Tsitsipas and him.

If he has options to win a Grand Slam?

Yes. If a year ago he expected to be thinking that he could win a Grand Slam?

No. I knew he was a great player.

When he was 14 years old he trained with me and there was already something special there, but the evolution I've had in just one year... Wow!

He has surprised us all, even those who understand tennis.

P.

It seems that Nadal is close to returning, although injuries do not allow him to have regularity.

What path do you see?

R.

It still has a lot to offer us.

He has won three tournaments, so how can he not offer us more?

He has had these injuries, but they are occupational hazards.

The important thing is that before Roland Garros he can play some matches so that he has a chance of winning again.

Rafa still has a lot to offer us and I don't think Djokovic has ruined his career;

he'll struggle, but he'll pick up the pace again

P.

If you can rehearse enough before arriving in Paris, do you consider him the great favorite again?

R.

We will have to see how it goes, but it could be, without a doubt.

I insist, I think it's important that before he gets there he plays at least a few games at a high level;

maybe not in Madrid, but yes in Rome.

In the first rounds of Paris he will not play against top seeds and will be able to roll, but he must play beforehand to be physically prepared.

P.

And what about Djokovic?

Do you think that the decision not to get vaccinated could ruin his career?

A.

I don't think his career is being ruined.

It will cost him a little more to recover his level because he still doesn't have match rhythm, but he will pick it up again.

The vaccine?

Everyone owns their decisions.

Yes I agree?

I respect it, but I have been vaccinated.

It is your decision.

P.

And speaking of decisions, what do you think of the Wimbledon decision to veto Russian and Belarusian tennis players?

A.

It seems a bit unfair to me;

Well, no, it seems totally unfair to me.

I understand that the situation is not easy, but they have already been banned from playing in the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup, and I don't think they should be banned from playing without a flag, because in the end this is an individual sport.

It is being done in all the tournaments and it cannot be that because of a… [pauses for several seconds] let's call him a dictator, a sport like this is penalized.

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