On 8 June 2003, Juan Carlos Ferrero beat Martin Verkerk to lift the Coupe des Mousquetaires at Roland Garros, in what was one of the highlights of his career. Twenty years later, the former World No. 1 is back at the season’s second major on the bench of one of the favourites for the title in Paris.

On Monday, Carlos Alcaraz will play his first-round match against Flavio Cobolli of Italy with the peace of mind knowing that his coach has already been there and done that in Paris.

“During the pandemic he watched a bit of the final,” said Ferrero of Alcaraz and his Roland Garros championship match. “Kids today are much more about highlights than entire matches. We joke a lot, and he tells me that I didn’t used to hit the ball very hard. At the end of the day, I try to get him to see the body language, the mannerisms and the way to handle moments in that kind of match.”

Alcaraz arrives at Roland Garros as the first seed, and with something of a target on his back as the man to beat on clay. Novak Djokovic and Casper Ruud, for example, were quick to name the Spaniard as the man most likely to get his hands on the trophy come the competition’s closing Sunday.

“Carlos has played better than anyone during the clay season, but you have to do that every day at every tournament, as I tell him,” revealed Ferrero. “We saw that in Rome; you have an average day, your opponent plays well and you lose. Everything points to Carlos as the favourite, we’ve heard it many times and we know that.”

Ferrero explained that the team has tried to prepare for Roland Garros as well as possible and that there are positive ways to look at his early Rome loss to Fabian Marozsan.

“The rest after losing in Rome was good for him to reset on a mental level by being at home for a while,” Ferrero said. “We hope everything goes well. If there are no mishaps, I think he’s one of the favourites for the title. Will it happen? We don’t know.”

World No. 1 Alcaraz is playing in his first Grand Slam since winning last season’s US Open (he missed the 2023 Australian Open due to injury). Having already walked that path should help him, according to his coach.

“He’s a better player this year,” Ferrero said. “The experience of winning the US Open and going through what came after it has matured him more. The injuries have also made him think that it’s not all a bed of roses, that bad things can happen.

“In any case, he’s more mature as a person. He’s 20 and, also, when you’re in a team where people are older, I think you grow up a little quicker than you would with people who are your age.

“The whole team is very experienced, each in their own field. Carlos has an advantage in that respect: we’ve been with him for a while and we’ve worked hard to get him organised and on the right path.”

Ferrero added that the team is trying to help Alcaraz improve technically, like on his return and serve, as well as on his focus. “He is on a steep upward curve,” he said.

However, having won a major last year in New York does not guarantee anything, and there is history to prove it.

“You have to learn how to win a tournament like that one,” warned Ferrero. “I think a Grand Slam is always much more difficult than the others because you have to play seven matches and they’re best-of-five. It is more within reach for us Spanish players because we watch Roland Garros from a very young age. We have the examples of [Sergi] Bruguera, [Álex] Corretja, [Carlos] Moyà, myself… That makes you believe you can do it.”

Thus, the Spaniard will set out on his campaign ready for anything the tournament can throw at him. Ferrero knows it, and so does Alcaraz. From this moment on, the lion’s share of the spotlight, and everything that comes with it, will be on the 20-year-old.

“The pressure will always be there,” accepted Ferrero. “I think people expect a lot from many players, so we try to stay on our path and believe in ourselves. Of course, he won a Grand Slam at 19 and that will help him believe he can do it again.

“We’re ready to have a great tournament. Anyone can lose in the first round, but we’re having a great season on clay. We’ll give our all to have the best tournament possible.”

Could Roland Garros be where Andrey Rublev makes his breakthrough at a major?

The seventh seed made a good start on Sunday when he defeated Laslo Djere 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the second round. The 25-year-old hit 37 winners to move on after two hours and 32 minutes.

“I think I started normal and Laslo didn’t start really well. I was able to win quite easy [the] first set and then the second set I think I was too calm,” Rublev said. “I was very relaxed, without energy. In the end, the game was more or less equal [until] the moment when he took a medical break and he played a good game. There was the set.

“Then in the third set when I lost my serve I tried to, I don’t know, bring back the energy. I was trying to move to pushing myself. I was little by little getting better and better, and in the end, I was able to turn around the match.”

Rublev appeared in difficulty when Djere moved ahead by a service break in the third set, level at one set apiece. But the 13-time ATP Tour titlist buckled down from there to avoid a second first-round exit at the clay-court major in three years.

His confidence is as high as ever. Earlier this clay swing, Rublev captured his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Monte-Carlo and reached the final at the ATP 250 event in Banja Luka.

Rublev is also comfortable on the Parisian clay, having reached the quarter-finals here twice. He will next play a Frenchman, Corentin Moutet or Arthur Cazaux.

Djere was a tricky opening opponent, as the Serbian won an ATP 500 on clay in 2019 at Rio de Janeiro. But Rublev limited his unforced errors to just 24, which proved critical.

The seventh seed will not play a seeded opponent until at least the fourth round. That is because 30th seed Ben Shelton, his projected third-round opponent, fell in the first round on Sunday.

Lorenzo Sonego defeated the American 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 on Court 13. The Italian avenged a three-set loss to Shelton last year in Cincinnati. He took advantage of 49 unforced errors from the lefty to move on after two hours and 53 minutes.

“For me, failure is not negative. It’s part of your career, especially in tennis.”

Those are the words of three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka, who sat down with ATP Uncovered for the latest edition of the ‘Note To Self’ series.

The former World No. 3 spoke on a variety of topics from his early days. The Swiss explained whether he enjoyed practice and fitness workouts as a junior, and revealed advice he would give to his younger self.

What trait does Wawrinka wish he would’ve had more of at the start of his career? Why was 2013 “a turning year” for him? Wawrinka leaves the episode by writing three important words on a whiteboard. Learn the answers to all that and more by watching the full video feature above.

Stefanos Tsitsipas passed a stern first-round test on Sunday at Roland Garros, where the fifth seed overcame Jiri Vesely 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(7) at the clay-court major.

The fifth seed appeared set for a routine victory on Court Philippe Chatrier after claiming the first two sets but Vesely, playing in his first tour-level tournament since the US Open last September, battled hard. The Czech sealed the third set with a late break of his opponent’s serve and led 6/3 in the fourth-set tie-break, but Tsitsipas kept his cool to dig out a three-hour, 13-minute victory.

“He was a difficult obstacle today, I won’t lie,” said Tsitsipas of the former World No. 35 Vesely. “He gave me a hard time. I’m happy I overcame it in such a fashion. I was able to bounce back from all those difficulties that were being thrown at me constantly. Today’s win is very important for me.”

Tsitsipas outhit Vesely by 57 winners to 31 but the Czech consistently raised his level at key moments to keep the fifth seed on his toes in the pair’s maiden ATP Head2Head meeting. Tsitsipas’ dominance on serve ultimately proved key: The Greek won 83 per cent (71/86) of points behind his first delivery overall.

Tsitsipas now holds a 19-6 record at Roland Garros, where he reached the championship match in 2021. His second-round opponent in Paris will be Roberto Carballes Baena or qualifier Emilio Nava.

More to follow…

American Aleksandar Kovacevic had just turned seven when he went to the US Open and watched a five-set, first-round thriller between 18-year-olds Novak Djokovic and Gael Monfils. Fast forward 18 years, World No. 114 Kovacevic is set to make his Grand Slam main draw debut at Roland Garros and face the winner of that match, 22-time major champion Djokovic.

“Watching him growing up was amazing. He’s the best player to ever play,” Kovacevic told ATPTour.com. “To play any of the ‘Big Three’ in any match, nonetheless a Grand Slam, the chances of that are getting smaller and smaller as the years go. Even though I feel like I just started my tennis career, it’s something that I think all of the tennis players that are playing now want to do at some point is to play one of those. I just feel kind of lucky to be able to play Novak on stage like this. Honoured to play, it’s going to be super cool.”

Kovacevic was sitting in the bleachers on Court 10 at Flushing Meadows in 2005, when Djokovic, then an 18-year-old just inside the Top 100 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, survived the humid New York afternoon and Monfils in the first round. Alongside Kovacevic was his younger sister Lena, his father Milan, who hails from Serbia, and mother Milanka, who is from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

After the match, Djokovic posed for a picture with ‘Aleks’. 

“Djokovic was just coming up from juniors as one of the top players,” Milanka recalled. “We went there to watch him and nobody was there. Half an hour later, that court was so full and we were [a] few of the people that were cheering for Djokovic and I think that’s why he noticed us. After the spectacular match, we waited to congratulate him and he remembered seeing us and that’s why he took a picture with Aleks.”

Kovacevic had picked up a racquet for the first time just two years prior, aged five. He grew up on the Upper West Side of New York City, a five-minute walk from the iconic Central Park, where Kovacevic first began to play tennis.

As a child, Kovacevic trained at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. At age 11, he attended an open tryout for the John McEnroe Tennis Academy and was chosen by McEnroe among a group of 200 students to receive a full scholarship. In 2010, Kovacevic hit with McEnroe and Andy Roddick at halftime of a World TeamTennis match in New York. Little did they know he would someday become a professional.

Kovacevic moved to south Florida as a teen to continue his training and elected to attend college. He enjoyed a standout career at the University of Illinois, where he received a Bachelor’s degree in finance and was a two-time ITA All-American. His junior year, Kovacevic became the first Illini player to reach the semi-finals of the NCAA Singles Championships since Kevin Anderson in 2007.

“I think college as a pathway is important because sometimes you feel you aren’t ready for what the pro tour entails,” Kovacevic said. “What helped me the most in college was maturing a lot, understanding life a little better and using the tools I had there to become ready to grind on Tour. Starting out on the pro tour can be kind of ugly, you have to be mature for it.”

One of the ways Kovacevic found ‘maturity and growth’ in college was being pushed outside of his comfort zone by Illinois head coach Brad Dancer.

“Brad had us do things outside our comfort zone and helped us manage being an adult,” Kovacevic said.
“We went skydiving and hiking off trails in Arizona with rattlesnakes around. He put stress on being your own person and being independent and that was big for me.”

Throughout Kovacevic’s five years at Illinois, Dancer was able to see what he is like on and off the court.

^{Kovacevic at this month’s ATP Challenger Tour 175 event in Cagliari. Credit: Mike Lawrence/ATP Tour}
“He’s really, really intelligent. His parents are both very bright. He’s got a huge heart, almost to the detriment of him,” Dancer said. “He’s got a big love for other people and he was a tremendous team guy. We used to have a joke, ‘Everybody loves Kova’. I think people just connect with him, he’s very easy going off the court. Almost everybody gets along with him.”

Kovacevic turned pro in 2021 and was eager to make his Grand Slam qualifying debut at that year’s US Open, where he made it to the final round before suffering one of the toughest losses of his career. The following day, Kovacevic returned to the gym at Flushing Meadows and crossed paths with Djokovic.

“My final round qualifying match against [Marco] Trungelliti, I had seven or eight match points. It was one of the most heartbreaking losses I’ve ever had,” Kovacevic said. “The next day, when I was in the gym, Novak told me he heard about my match and asked if I wanted to join his fitness session.

“I was shocked. He was chasing history that week and didn’t have to give me his time. It was an incredible experience. At the end, Novak told me that I’ve got a bright future and I should train with him in Serbia.”

Kovacevic has been on the rise ever since that moment. His hard work has paid off especially this year, when in January the 24-year-old won his maiden Challenger trophy in Cleveland, defeating Wu Yibing in the final one week before the Chinese star went on a historic run to the Dallas Open title. Kovacevic also triumphed at the Waco Challenger and reached a career-high No. 101 in April.

^{Kovacevic at the 2023 Cleveland Challenger, which he won. Credit: Ben Peskar}
“To win my first Challenger was special, it felt great,” Kovacevic said. “It’s something I wanted to check off my list before moving into ATP. Not something that I had to check off or that it was necessary to get into the Top 100 or 50, but definitely a plus. It’s something I’m happy to put behind me.”

Kovacevic made his tour-level debut at last year’s ATP 250 event in Seoul, where as a lucky loser he defeated then-World No. 32 Miomir Kecmanovic and completed a semi-final run before falling to eventual champion Yoshihito Nishioka.

The American has his sights set on more breakthroughs in hopes of reaching one of his career goals, which is ultimately cracking the Top 10 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Kovacevic knows “that’s far away as of now”, and he will be fully focussed on the task at hand — facing Djokovic, whom he first met nearly two decades ago.

“Playing the best of the best in the first round is not the most ideal draw,” Kovacevic said. “But you never know, the score is going to be 0-0 on Monday to start.”

Mate Valkusz enjoyed a breakthrough moment this week at the Skopje Challenger, where he advanced through qualifying en route to claiming his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title.

The Hungarian won seven matches in as many days and defeated Argentine Francisco Comesana 6-3, 6-4 in Saturday’s final at the Macedonian Open. Valkusz ousted three of the top five seeds at the clay-court event, including a quarter-final victory against top seed Aziz Dougaz.

The 24-year-old Valkusz adds to the promising young talent hailing from Hungary. Zsombor Piros, 23, has captured two Challenger titles this year while Fabian Marozsan won the Antalya Challenger in March and stunned Carlos Alcaraz en route to a fourth-round appearance at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome.

At a career-high No. 224 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, Valkusz was also a finalist at last month’s Ostrava Challenger.

Comesana was competing in his third Challenger final and first of this year. The 22-year-old collected two Challenger titles in 2022, in Corrientes and Buenos Aires.

A magical week for 🇭🇺 Mate Valkusz 💫

The qualifier wins the first Challenger title of his career after defeating Comesana 6-3, 6-4 in Skopje!#ATPChallenger | @HUNgarianTENNIS pic.twitter.com/sYB9fzIc4h

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) May 27, 2023