Back in his playing days, when he was better known for being a French Open champion and world No 1 than as the coach of Carlos Alcaraz, Juan Carlos Ferrero was known as the Mosquito. The buzzing, nimble movement that earned the Spaniard that nickname may have faded, but he has not lost his bite.
That became apparent behind the scenes at the ATP Finals in Turin where, in the moments before Alcaraz’s opening group match against Casper Ruud, Ferrero turned to the 25-year-old Norwegian and fixed him with a lingering stare.
If it was an attempt to unnerve the opposition, it could hardly have failed more comprehensively. The imperturbable Ruud looked up long enough to notice he was being eyeballed but, once the action started, he did not look back, stunning an out-of-sorts Alcaraz 6-1, 7-5 to claim his first win in five meetings with the Spanish third seed.
Having fended off a pair of early break points, Ruud, a finalist at the season-ending championships two years ago, rapidly seized control of the contest, reeling off five straight games to seal the opening set in just 35 minutes.
If that defied the predictions of most pundits, normal service appeared to be restored when Alcaraz swept into a 5-2 second-set lead. But worse was to come for the four-time grand slam champion as Ruud, who arrived in northern Italy with just two wins since the US Open, defied the form book with another extraordinary five-game run that he hailed as a potential catalyst for a strong end to the season.
“This year I’m coming into the tournament with probably the least confidence of all the players in terms of match wins and my recent form, especially on indoor hard courts,” said Ruud. “It has not been easy to find match wins at all for me; I’ve been joking, saying that maybe I can save them all for this week.
“I’m not full of confidence, I think that’s been showing in the last weeks. A match like today might be able to change it. We’re at the end of the season, so there aren’t going to be that many more tournaments coming up. If I can finish on a strong note here, I’m going to be really happy.”
Ruud’s first win over a top-three opponent on a hard court was helped by an error-strewn performance from his opponent. Alcaraz finished the afternoon with 34 unforced errors and admitted afterwards that he had felt the effects of an illness he picked up after returning to Murcia following his loss to Ugo Humbert at the Paris Masters last month.
“A few days before coming here, I got sick at home,” said Alcaraz. “The days that I was practising here, I was feeling OK. Not pretty good, but OK, I could play. I could feel that I can get into the rallies in practice.
“Obviously, the matches are totally different. But today I didn’t feel well. In the morning, I felt uncomfortable in the stomach. After long rallies today, I didn’t feel well. I don’t want to say [this], because I don’t want to sound like an excuse – but if I feel bad, I feel bad. It is what happened today.”
Whatever his physical state, however, Alcaraz is still Alcaraz, and Ruud needed to have his wits about him throughout in order to claim his 50th win of the season. The world No 7 showed courage and resilience to survive three break points in the fourth game of the opener, twice outlasting Alcaraz from the baseline and then slotting away a backhand volley before some fine serving propelled him to a vital hold.
As Ruud acknowledged, his task was made none the easier by his awareness that Alcaraz was struggling physically, knowledge he did his utmost to exploit.
“I knew he was dealing with a bit of a cold, Carlos, I’ve seen him snuffling around, always with a tissue for his nose,” said Ruud. “That’s a sign that physically he won’t be necessarily at 100%, and of course that’s sad, and that’s not good for him, but it’s also at the same time part of the game.
“I knew it coming in, I tried to make him play rallies and did my best, but it’s not easy, because when you know someone is not 100% maybe you get stressed yourself and think, ‘Oh, this is a big chance for me to maybe win.’ So I just tried to stay in my world, in the moment.”
A key moment came with Alcaraz served for the second set at 5-3, Ruud pulling off a magical topspin lob to bring up two break points, the first of which he converted after once again out-steadying the struggling Spaniard.
In the evening match, second seed Alexander Zverev saw off Andrey Rublev 6-4, 6-4.