Peter Bothwell reflects on first time watching future Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz aged 16

​Bothwell – the first Northern Irish player to earn an ATP point before retiring with a career-high ranking of 602 – was based in Spain for much of his time as a professional so had heard murmurings of the next big thing coming through.

It was at an ITF event – the third-tier of tennis behind the main ATP Tour and Challenger Tour – in June 2019 that Bothwell first watched Alcaraz, who had just turned 16 weeks prior and sat 515th in the world rankings, take on Ireland Davis Cup teammate Simon Carr in Martos.

Alcaraz certainly lived up to the hype in that first-round encounter (which he won 4-6, 6-3, 6-3) and went onto reach the semi-final, picking up a purse of £976 – not quite the £2.35million he earned for Wimbledon glory.

"My first thought was how physically developed, explosive and powerful he was even at that age,” said Bothwell. “He had a massive forehand and you could see skills, but his serve wasn't that good.

"It was just how physically strong and powerful he was that was what stood out straight away.

"For someone so young when you see that combined with skills you know this kid has an opportunity to be pretty good."

Through his experiences on the court, Bothwell has the credentials to determine what makes a special player having taken on the likes of Casper Ruud, Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas – all currently in the world’s top-10 – but there’s always the unknown of whether a junior can truly fulfil their potential.

Many don’t, but Alcaraz certainly has to this point and the same attributes that helped him achieve Wimbledon glory, like his booming forehand, were already evident at courtside in Spain for Bothwell.

"Training in Spain and being around those events, there was already a lot of chat before I had seen him play,” he added. “I had heard his name so I was expecting some good things.

"You can never tell how good someone at that age will go on to be because they could pick up some injuries, lose interest - you can never tell in a junior.

"The skills he had on show and the physical attributes he had at that age, I knew if he continued on that trajectory that he was going to be a good player.

"Everything off the forehand was fast and heavy.

"I would say in this past year his serve development has been huge. He's a lot more aggressive on second serve and his first has got faster and the intention behind it looks like it’s something that has really been worked on.

"When I watched him that first time, he only really had a kick serve.

"In Spanish culture, they work a lot on repetition, heaviness of ball from the back of the court on forehand and backhand, but don't work so much on serve in their junior years.

"The past year on tour his serve has made huge improvements and he didn't serve well in the first set against Novak but throughout the rest of the match he served well and that put him in good situations to dictate."

The same year that Bothwell watched Alcaraz in action, the Spaniard linked up with former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero – the same coach who watched on proudly as his protégé picked up the most prestigious title in tennis – and Bothwell, now a coach himself, feels Ferrero also deserves massive credit.

"The thing that stands out to me is that he's (Alcaraz) obviously obsessed with the game but it just looks like he loves it at the same time,” he said. “The amount of times he was smiling on Centre Court was ridiculous.

"How calm and composed he was in the moment and just loving it.

"Some of the other guys maybe don't feel on their day they can beat Novak or there's always a little bit of doubt, but for me, Alcaraz looks like he has complete confidence and clarity that he has the ability.

"Juan Carlos Ferrero has to take credit for that as well. To develop a junior through to being a Grand Slam champion is such an achievement for a coach and he deserves a lot of credit.

"It's a lot easier when you turn up and you already have a champion to work with, but he's brought him through which is impressive.”

With Djokovic himself saying in the post-match press conference that he’s never played anyone quite like Alcaraz throughout his career and the 20-year-old has all the best parts of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and himself, it seems likely he will add many more titles to an already impressive haul.

With some of the greats now either retired or edging ever closer towards it, Alcaraz is leading the next generation and Bothwell sees him being at the top for the foreseeable future.

“Unless he gets some serious injuries, I feel he's going to be pretty dominant for years to come,” he added. "I'd say Holger Rune has unrivalled self-belief so at some stage he will win a couple of Grand Slams and Jannik Sinner too - I think it will be those three.

"It depends on how long Novak sticks around because he's so obsessed with winning.

"He will give himself an opportunity to win another two or three Grand Slams.

"Medvedev will be there as well and he's probably one of the favourites for the US Open."