An English translation of Horacio de la Peña's online interview with JC Ferrero (2020).

[I get cramps]

Horacio de la Peña - Do you know what I liked most about your style of play? Well, among the clay players, you were the one who best replicated Agassi's command on hard courts but with a better movement on clay.

JCF - That was the consequence of playing every day on a hard court between the ages of 10 and 15; I never played on clay during that period. When I practiced with Antonio Martinez Cascales at the club, there were only fast courts, and gradually, my mindset shifted toward hitting the ball aggressively. I was always playing with older people who could hurt me more than I could, so I was forced to think continuously about how I could do them harm. Antonio noticed I could cause similar levels of damage with either wing. The goal I was looking for was growing; the next was to maintain the same ball speed for as long as possible.

HDLP - So you had both tennis schools.

JCF - Yes..., I ended up not caring whether I played on clay or cement. Although I did play well at times on grass [Davis Cup Final in Kooyong, 2003] and on fast indoor courts, I wasn't as comfortable on those surfaces. I didn't have time on the latter two surfaces to dominate how I liked.

HDLP - You would have loved today's circuit, where many things have been homogenized.

JCF - Of course, we played more on fast courts back then.

H - Your performance improved significantly from 2000 to 2002.

JFC - I was engrossed in the head-to-head challenge.

HDLP - When you were a kid, which player did you watch the most?

JCF - I watched as many Agassi matches as I could. He wasn't an idol of mine in the sense of being his fanboy, but I recognized myself in his style. I didn't go to the net too much, but I had good wheels and time to get to the right places balanced, hit hard, and dominate the point.

HDLP - I could tell you liked to boss players around. Do you remember the first fear that had a significant impact on you?

JCF - I had it the year after I won Roland Garros. I was continuously and significantly progressing. And I reached the semis at the Australian Open, losing to Federer. I went to Rotterdam and lost in the final against Hewitt. I contracted chickenpox after completing the tournament, resulting in a period of inactivity lasting between 6 and 7 months. I fall in the ranking almost to the 90th position. That's when the fear appears: will I return to the number 2 ranking I had before I got chickenpox? I finished the year in the 15th position in the ranking. I put in a lot of effort to accomplish that, making me proud.

From then on, I found it more challenging to maintain a high level of play throughout the year. As a result of what happened at the beginning of 2004, my first fears appeared.

HDLP - From 2000 to 2004, you dominated mainly with your cross-court shots. Could you break down your forehand for me?

JCF - To begin with, the crucial thing was where I was on the court. I was able to play comfortably with a lot of heights. Even if, at first, I always tried to load the forehand, taking a forward position to take the ball on the rise. I gave tremendous relevance to the information that my first ball impact sent me on the point because I anticipated the distance and direction of the opponent's next shot well.

HDLP - You didn't have a long backswing if we consider you a clay court player when you came to the tour. You were not precisely Sergi (laughs). You had great articular rotation in your shots and great strength in your hand. Did you get that strength from playing so much on a hard court?

JCF - No, I think it resulted from acquiring racquet acceleration. Trying to dominate all the time by gaining racquet speed makes your hand firm and stiff to keep off the balls that come at you deep and fast in the same way or even quicker and more deeply. You can't lose the quality of your stroke when those balls come at you. The strong hand is acquired as a child because you play to exhaustion.


If anyone wants, I can go ahead and proceed with the translation.

I'm clueless about how interesting this interview will be. After 18 minutes and 23 seconds of the interview, I stopped transcribing and translating.

 

[Drob]

Please proceed. Or post the link. I am bilingual. Thank you.

 

[I get cramps]

Great, @Drob . The link to the first part of the interview is in the YouTube video I posted.

HDLP - You were not afraid to start points by exchanging cross forehands, and you were moving your opponents wider to their right side more and more. Why did you leverage yourself there and pull your opponents so much wide to their right?

JCF - I was pretty confident in my DTL forehand, and people have difficulty releasing it [I think he's referring to clay court play]. There tends to be a bit of fear because if you don't hit it well in front of you, the ball goes out [Albert Costa says he teaches the kids he coaches to shoot the backhand parallel as soon as they see it]. So, unless I was playing against Fernando Gonzalez, in which case I wouldn't trade forehands with him from anywhere on the court.... (laughter in unison), I usually liked to throw DTL'ers with both wings.

HDLP - You were so confident in your diagonals that you switched immediately if your opponent threw a DTL.

JCF - I had a blast moving the ball around and hardly ever took three shots on the same side. It's like when you play against someone who returns with great depth, and suddenly, one of his returns goes out by a half-inch. You don't feel any relief at that moment, even if you just won the point. Now, flip it around. Your rival moves the ball around, dictating play, and you can't envision hardly any of his shots. How do you end up feeling mentally and physically?

HDLP - Your crosscourt backhand was very uncomfortable to play. In Argentina, we had two great two-handed backhands, Coria and Nalbandian. Your beatdown of Coria in Monte Carlo... [2003 Final]. Coria had great stamina in rallies, even against Rafa. You could produce a crazy pace for a long time. Secrets, leverage and impact points, rotation...

JCF - Nowadays, players are leaning on their left legs. I always tried to put the weight on my right leg to create a more forward fulcrum and take the ball on the rise, and I think that at the end of my career, I had a better backhand than forehand because I had better sensations in this stroke. I'm not entirely sure, but I think I ended up being able to hit more backhand winners than forehand winners. My confidence in my ability to get power and depth with my backhand cross-court...

HDLP - Where on the court were you aiming for, or were you trying to open up the court more?

JCF—The automatisms worked depending on where I was on the court. Now, if I were very open on the court, I would open the court more, and if I were more centered, I would try to play with more depth and cross-court. I had massive confidence in my backhand: DTL, cross-court, short angles.

H - I was surprised that you encouraged any player to mix it up: Agassi and Safin, you played against Guga, and you faced him, who burned the ball.

JCF - I liked to play with courage any time during the match. At 30-40, 5-5 in the third set, if I didn't go for it, the sensations I had afterward were horrible. "I haven't been brave, and this can't happen." Antonio and I would create routines to simulate those situations and be more aggressive. Some players sensed my attitude. Chela told me. "Juan Carlos, I don't understand how you can play with the same pace at 5-5 in a tie-break of a fifth set in the USO as you do at 1-1 in a first set." Well, you are putting pressure on your opponent.

 

[I get cramps]

HDLP - But what did you do in those 5-5, 30-40 that you mentioned? Did you up the risk by hitting the ball with the same power and slightly increasing the chance of it going in?

JCF - No, I wasn't considering a more significant margin for my shot. I was mainly thinking about how to play my next two shots: where I would return the incoming serve, and if the third ball of the point was advantageous, I almost certainly knew I would shoot crosscourt.

If the point kept going, the automatisms showed up. If the opponent hit cross-court, and, with power, I would hit the same way he did. When the circumstances were easy, I would hit DTL.


HDLP - If you hit DTL at that moment,

JCF - Like Djokovic [Horacio laughs], I liked shooting DTLers early. Djokovic is an improved, or much improved, version of Agassi's freedom of shot selection, as his mobility is noticeably better, and he always gets where he wants and is well-balanced. I remember playing against Novak at Umag when he was 18 or 19 and noticing that he was incredibly talented.

I am training with a kid, Alcaraz, who has an extensive repertoire of shots. I'm trying to instill in him a style of play similar to Djokovic's or even my own because I think that style is very well suited to all surfaces at the moment.

HDLP - I hope this kid understands the level of the coach he has and listens to you as you did to Antonio. @Waspsting

JCF - I hope so. It's hard nowadays to find kids that want to listen to us.

HDLP - How did you react when you played against serve & volleyers or people who frequently went up to the net? Did you try to pass them with the first shot, or did you make them volley and try to pass with the second shot?

JCF - I would try to pass them right away. At the beginning of my career, I shot an excessive number of cross-court passing shots; the experience made me realize how effective DTLers are. I shot to the feet if I didn't have a good position. The passing shot has to be like a winner, hard, that if the volleyer touches it or impacts it, he will notice the clash with the ball.

HDLP - It was hard to break your serve even though you were not a freebie player. You got the third ball in an attackable situation; who did you copy your serve to? What exactly were you looking for with it?

JCF - I didn't imitate anyone's serve. When I was 19 years old, I moved my foot before starting the movement. I progressed. Within my limitations, I had a service that worked for me. You won't believe me, but at 40 years old, I serve better than ever before in my life. I accepted I would not have a great serve and would have to play every point. I tell this kid I mentioned not to get angry about not getting freebies and, consequently, to transfer his anger to his baseline game on days when his serve frustrates him. So, what do you do if you have foul shots from the baseline or they are not consistent? It is not a drama that a great player whose height is between 5' 11" and 6' 0" 4/5 does not score a freebie in every game. It has been the case with some very great players.

HDLP - Did you have favorite plays with your serve?

JCF - On clay, I liked the wide out serve on the advantage side to move way off the court to get around the backhand and dominate the point. I played with a first-second serve on clay to take the initiative with the second or third shot. On hard, I beefed my serve and tried to flatten it. When I was pressured, my favorite serve on deuce was to the T; I was pretty confident. On hard, I had a penchant for serving wide out on the advantage side to the opponent's backhand, trying to wrongfoot him when he was recovering the center of the baseline.

HDLP - Your return was excellent. Players were serving outward kick serves in abundance then, and you would step up and take it on the rise and boom.

JCF - Yes, because of those six critical years I spent playing only on fast courts. I was a bit further back on clay and realized I could return further forward. The year I won Roland Garros, except in the final because of Verkerk's very tough serve, I took two steps further along than my usual return spots at Roland Garros. That change made me dominate my matches during the tournament, except for the one against Gonzalez.

HDLP - And what was your secret? Give me your secrets; I have you beside me (laughs). You will return a first serve; where did you aim your shot? Did you look for the opponent's backhand or the server's feet?

JCF - The usual is to return cross-court. Cross-court but a little more towards the center of the court if the incoming ball is difficult to return. However, if you have time with second serves, you will shoot a lot of DTLers. I was not a player who moved way off the court to get around the backhand too much, especially on the advantage side. And I appreciated a return that I tried as a winner. When the opponent served wide to my forehand on the deuce side, I would try a cross-court return, nothing original, but I had that return very well measured, and I shot it full of confidence.

There are not plenty of plays, Horacio. If something creates significant differences between players, it is a strong desire to be in a tie-break whose score has passed 7-7, among various other things.

 

[BauerAlmeida]

De La Peña made some great interviews during the pandemic. I think he interviewed Coria, Nalbandian and González too.

Unfortunately they are not English but it's great someone is doing translations for them.

 

[I get cramps]

De La Peña made some great interviews during the pandemic. I think he interviewed Coria, Nalbandian and González too.

Unfortunately they are not English but it's great someone is doing translations for them.

De la Peña and U.S.-based Argentine coach Tom Spatz, under the guise of confinement, began interviewing countless Spanish-speaking tennis players: Mancini, Arantxa Sánchez, Safin, Albert Costa, Nicolás Lapentti, Moyà, Carlos Costa, the ones you mentioned, Mariano Zabaleta, Corretja, Higueras, Bruguera, etc.

The interviews are between an hour and a quarter and over two hours long. The tennis players and coaches answer technical and logistical questions (how South American players had to approach European tours; in a not-so-long-ago time, this was an ordeal) and biographical questions.

The problem lies in the time to transcribe the oral and translate it into written English.

There is nothing comparable in the English language that I have noticed because of the enormous length of these interviews. This was not Gimelstob Holding Court, but something completely different. There is plenty of time, and the players or coaches are relaxed and explain themselves at length and accurately.

 

[I get cramps]

HDLP - Did you study your opponents' serving patterns?

JCF - During my years on the circuit, there weren't as many statistics as now. As a pro, I didn't break down videos until the final years of my career. But we players knew each other and had a rough idea of how we played the points when things got tough. Coria would drop-shot you, and Gaudio would try to trade backhands on those points. Let's say that we knew each other well.

Serves? Kuerten served very well, but [audio is lost, but when the audio is recovered, Juan Carlos comes to say that Guga's serve was not tricky for him to read]. Roddick, I don't remember reading him a single serve. I had good reads of Nalbandián's serve, but I can't say I read it; far from it. Look, in the end..., I was reacting to the incoming ball because of intuitions, and if they are wrong, either you have a rapid reaction time or... Usually, players have spent a long time disguising their serves. It is a detail that is taken care of inside out. There were not a large number of players whose serve I would read.

HDLP - What was your grip for return?

JCF - I didn't overthink about it, Horacio. I waited with my forehand grip, and if the ball came to my backhand side, my backhand having a reasonably compact swing, the changeover time was not a difficulty. I was blocking the ball rather than a backhand hit on my return. I preferred to wait with the forehand grip as I had more time to return from my backhand side.

HDLP - Earlier, you said you didn't come to the net. I watched you, and you did. You volleyed well; I mean, you were effective in "the air game"; you could recognize when you should go to the net.

JCF - For that reason, you mention. According to my skills, I had to have a point under control to go to the net in order not to find myself with a very difficult volley. I wasn't a talented player at the net. I defended pretty well but was no Tim Henmann (smiles). I have a good feeling, and on clay, I often used short cross-court volleys because I would have reached the net with a time advantage over my opponent. On hard, I used long volleys.

HDLP - Did you learn the "air game" in Spain, or did people from other countries help you?

JCF - What is the "air game"?

[The "air game" is the locution to name the game of serve and volley, overhead and half volley, or just volley; the net game in short. Emilio Sánchez Vicario (1965) knows the term; evidently, Juan Carlos (1980) does not. Emilio spent his entire career playing doubles].

Ah, the volley! I spent the preseasons focusing on shortening my backhand volley backswing.

HDLP - I will pick up on a question we covered briefly. The impression you made on me when I met you in 2003 was that you felt you were invincible. [Juan Carlos smiles] I looked at your face and thought: this guy thinks he is invincible. When Fernando Gonzalez and I were about to play in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros 2003, although Fernando had beaten you both times you had played, we knew you were the man to beat. Fernando liked playing against you. You were courageous in that quarterfinal match at Roland Garros.

JCF - Very few people would have been happy to play a big match with Fernando. You play uncomfortably when you face a player with such a decisive shot, and he can shoot it from any spot on the court. Fernando forces you to play him monotonously, even if you impose an aggressive game plan. You have to be the first aggressor. And what will follow, if you manage to beat him, what will follow will be: find his backhand, attack his backhand, attack his backhand; that's how the match will develop until the last point if you want to beat him.

HDLP - You made me feel your courage during your match. You get chicken pox after finishing Rotterdam, and you lose that self-confidence I saw in person. At the end of 2004, you are the 15th player in the ranking; what happens then? What did you lack to be a world number 5 again, for example? I don't mean so much the number as the look you had.

JCF - I've thought about it quite a bit.

There used to be players against whom you went out on the court knowing you had a great chance of beating them. That confidence is starting to disappear. The Masters 1000, the Grand Slams, tournaments you used to go into with the willingness to win them. When you are number 15 in the world, you don't have the confidence you had when you were number 3 or 4. Physically, I never felt like I did between 2000 and 2003. I changed racquets to Head, and I didn't gain a similar confidence with it as I had with the previous racquet. When you lose self-confidence, you accumulate factors that make you uncomfortable.

When you end up moving in those ranking positions, 15-20 20-15, the psychological and physical distance you feel from the one you had when you were "number five" is critical.

HDLP - Tell me the truth. Tell me the truth; you have to be honest with me. The first time you met Federer, you thought about... (laughs) 20 grand slams...

JCF - I've known him since he was very, very young. He had many ups and downs, allowing you to take the initiative when you played and hurt him. You could tell he could be an outstanding player. I played against him in the USO, knowing that the match would be complicated, but I saw myself as a favorite. Roger had a radical change of attitude. In my opinion, Roger is the best player in the history of tennis. We all noticed the same things about him.

With Rafa, also, when he was 16 years old, who thought he would win 19 slams? We didn't believe in those numbers.

Roger managed to reach such a level of play that when he had "the right day," you had a blast—any kind of shot from anywhere and a stunning buoyancy in his movement.

HDLP - Do the math. To win a slam, you often have to win by playing above par one or two matches; then, if we talk about 20 slams...

 

[I get cramps]

JCF - Roger's backhand has improved dramatically since I played him the first few times. Above all, he has perfected his serve to a degree that he has a fabulous success rate for placing the ball in the exact place and angle wanted. He did not seek to increase his pace, but essentially his accuracy.

Then, we have the improvement in his movement. He permanently moved very well, but sometimes, his footwork was lazy and lacking liveliness. He achieved that buoyancy that enables him to get a meter closer to the court, stealing even more time from you. Even today, he still moves fast.

I try to do that here at the center with the teenagers, and I don't even come close, and I'm in good shape.

HDLP—Could you tell me about Rafa? You knew him as a young teenager, and if things had gone differently, maybe he would have prevented you from winning another Roland Garros.

JCF - I remember the last USO (2019) in which Rafa in the final was lackluster in the last game of the match. That last game is not good at all. He makes a mistake on the first point. In the second ball serves, he goes to the net and executes a mediocre volley. In the third, first forehand out, 15-30. He has a breakpoint against him, and with a second serve, he wins the point by miracle... He won playing at 80% because he faced individual adversities and did not blame himself for anything. That is something extraordinary.

HDLP - It strikes me how he now wins on the clay while serving on the third shot of the point. He has adapted to different circumstances as Roger has done.

JCF - Tennis changes with time. Now, players are taller; they hit even harder, they are even stronger, and they play more linearly... Well, these three guys changed along with the circumstances of the game. Rafa can play two forward than in 2005 and don't get me started on Roger.

HDLP - Could you tell me about Novak?

JCF - He is the fittest of the three. He must have done a tremendous job on his elasticity; if you watch him, he is always well-balanced and where he needs to be on the court. I think his ball impact gives him a tremendous amount of information. He is always well-positioned and supported on the front leg. Only when he gets to the ball wrong, he leans on his left leg. He goes to the other side of his baseline as soon as he throws a ball into the opponent's half court. He has fabulous anticipation. Among the three, he is the one who has the best chance of winning more slams.

He has the confidence of someone who has beaten Rafa and Roger on their best surfaces. He is the one who plays better in extreme situations.

I don't see Roger winning tough matches in five sets anymore. Rafa is still doing well physically.

We didn't see Novak in the final of the AO (2020) in the fourth set; he was furious. And suddenly, he shows that confidence that tells you: "Here I am to win the match." Unbelievable.

Those true legends have a special something that I can't put my finger on.

HDLP - How bad was your foot in the 2002 Roland Garros final? Just a heads up, my buddy Albert is coming over next week. I felt the final would be a 50/50. But if I had the money, I would have bet on you.


JCF - I twisted my ankle badly in the tournament's first round. I was playing at a very high rhythm during the clay season. I had made semis the year before and wanted to win Roland Garros.

 

[I get cramps]

JCF - In the end, in conjunction with the doctors, I decided to put my ankle to sleep before playing matches. This altered how I stepped with my ankle in motion, and my body gradually accumulated more muscle strain. The ankle that got messed up was the right one, so I was putting more weight on the left one.

I had a tear in one abductor and later in the other. I strained my shoulder. Warming up during the morning for the final, I had a tear in the abdominals.

During the final, out of professional pride, I tried to draw strength from where I still had it.

If I had been healthy, I would have had a chance to win the final. I know Albert Costa was playing at a high level, but I was also playing at a high level until I broke down—a shame.

HDLP - Your victory in the 2003 final was a breeze...

JCF - Yes, that's what you say when the match is over! Verkerk had beaten Coria and Moyà in the quarterfinals and semis. I had already played a final on that court, and he hadn't, and I think he felt that.

HDLP - When Verkerk equalizes the score at two in the second set, he starts celebrating, and at that moment, the match is over, so to speak.

JCF—I played with the same intensity and monitored his serves and my return in case he came to the net. I served very well and neutralized his serve.

When you reach a slam final for the first time, you are not in the same psychological situation as when you have already played and won the deciding match of a Davis Cup final, a slam semi that you could have won against the eventual winner of the tournament, and a final in which if you had been in normal physical condition, you could have competed with as much chance of winning as your opponent.

I hope those experiences can help the kid with me in the future.

HDLP - Tell me about Murray.

JCF—Murray. He has paid the price for having so many people to complain to. We've seen it throughout his career during his tense matches. I don't see a big difference in play and physicality vs. the three prodigies he has lived with. He has not been as tremendously mentally tough as them.

HDLP - What's wrong with the so-called next-gen group?

JCF—Does Kyrgios want to win a grand slam? Dominic Thiem is the most tennis-focused of them all. I know Shapovalov's coach, and he has to set phone schedules for him so he doesn't get mentally cluttered. This is common in this generation because they have grown up like this since childhood.

HDLP - Tell me about Marcelo Rios.

JCF - I can't tell you much about him. I can tell you that while playing a challenger, I was talking to Luis Lobo (Argentine coach), and Marcelo was coming to play with me (Lobo was Rios' coach at the time). Lobo told me that Marcelo should be there in any second. Lobo continued, "He won't even look at you; he won't even say hello." And so it happened. He didn't even greet me. He won a set by a score of 6-2, didn't shake my hand at the end, and left. And I thought, "Who does this guy think he is?" The following year, I was going to play against him in Barcelona, and I wasn't willing to lose to him. I beat him. We ended up saying hi when we bumped into each other. He certainly wasn't a charming guy with his friends. He had a touch of madness.

Fernando Gonzalez couldn't be more different. I genuinely like him. We've known each other since I was 13. We played the juniors at Roland Garros in the final world championship at 14 and 16. I remember the five-setter we played at Wimbledon that ended 8-6 in the fifth set. When I beat him at Roland Garros 2003, he told me at the net: "I hope you win the tournament because you are a great guy, and I like you a lot."

We played a tremendous match at Roland Garros in 2003.

 

[Pheasant]

This is truly great stuff. Thanks for posting. I love hearing this stuff from former players.

 

[I get cramps]

This is truly great stuff. Thanks for posting. I love hearing this stuff from former players.

Thanks to you for reading it. It's nice to know that the effort put into transcribing and translating is appreciated.

I have another very long one with José Higueras completed. I have to do a grammatical and syntactic revision that I had to postpone almost two years ago. It is more than readable for you. I posted it despite it, and the forum veterans liked it a lot. As simple as typing, I get cramps, and the words Jose Higueras are an unabridged translation.

 

[Vincent-C]

Yes, this is great stuff, IGC. Thanks very much!

 

[Pheasant]

Thanks to you for reading it. It's nice to know that the effort put into transcribing and translating is appreciated.

I have another very long one with José Higueras completed. I have to do a grammatical and syntactic revision that I had to postpone almost two years ago. It is more than readable for you. I posted it despite it, and the forum veterans liked it a lot. As simple as typing, I get cramps, and the words Jose Higueras are an unabridged translation.

I really like how Juan Carlos really noticed Federer's improvement in footwork. Agassi was asked in circa 2004 what he noticed the most about Fed's improvement. He said his improvement in footwork was by far the biggest improvement of Fed's. I also was surprised to hear that Juan Carlos copied Agassi's game, even though he wasn't his hero. However, it makes sense, since he believed that they had a similar style. And I found it fascinating that he said Fernando Gonzalez was the one player that he would not trade forehands with, regardless of where he was on the court.

Anyway, keep up the great work!

 

[InsuranceMan]

Thank you @I get cramps