How Quinn has turned struggles to success ahead of Alcaraz opportunity

Late Sunday Ethan Quinn was receiving a massage after qualifying for the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell with a comeback three-set victory against former World No. 12 Borna Coric. The 21-year-old American texted his coach, Brian Garber, asking who he would play in the first round.

The answer was Carlos Alcaraz, the former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings who lifted his sixth ATP Masters 1000 trophy on Sunday in Monte-Carlo.

“I said that, and he said, ‘No, but seriously, who do I play?’” Garber recalled. “And I said, ‘Yeah, no, you play Carlos’.”

For some players, drawing a four-time major champion who is in top form would cause an immediate groan. There are easier opponents to face than Alcaraz, but Quinn was undeterred.

“It was funny because two days ago we said, ‘If you qualify, when the draw comes out, we know you're going to play Carlos’, so we almost manifested it happening,” Garber said. “I don't think it was an overwhelmed feeling at all, man. I actually think he's pretty pumped about it. And I mean, what a way to test yourself and see where you really are on the surface and where you really are with your game in general?”

Quinn is enjoying a breakthrough season on the ATP Tour, but it did not always come easily for the 21-year-old. The 2023 NCAA singles champion, who captured the title as a freshman at the University of Georgia, took time to adjust to professional tennis. Hitting a big serve and forehand would often end points in college. That has not been the case as a pro, leading to more difficult points and tougher matches.

Having grown up in Fresno, California under the tutelage of Brad Stine, Tommy Paul’s longtime coach, Quinn turned pro in June 2023. After a good preseason leading into 2024, Quinn lost three of his first four matches, including a defeat to the World No. 774 at an ITF World Tennis Tour $25K event.

“Everybody's timeline is different, and I think that he got in that [tough] situation of what Ben Shelton did the year before, and Ethan hasn't had a tonne of experience at the top level of tennis,” Garber said. “In juniors, he was a late bloomer, and came into it that way. He won NCAAs, and it was a pretty crazy run to do it down match points and all that stuff, where it could have gone the other way at any time.

“I think that as much as we tried to protect him from it, those expectations of what Ben had done the year before start to weigh on you. The other side of that too is, I think right away he had some success, where he finaled [the] Cleveland [Challenger] and qualified into Indian Wells. And I think that everybody kind of thought it was going to happen fast. But inside of our camp, we kind of knew that it wasn't.”

After reaching his first ATP Challenger Tour final in February 2024 in Cleveland, he did not move past the quarter-finals at any level until his last tournament of the season. In November, Quinn claimed his first Challenger trophy without losing a set in Champaign.

“Each time that we got over a miniature hump, there was another one to come,” Garber said. “And it's learning how to manage successes and failures. It's not really something that a kid who won NCAAs as a freshman ever really had to deal with before.”

A big turning point came in August at the Lincoln Challenger, where Quinn won just four games against Coleman Wong in “one of his worst performances of the year” according to Garber. That turned the team’s focus to the mental side of the game, leading to the introduction of a mental coach.

“He's done a phenomenal job. Ethan's bought into that, and we just bare down on his routines and his self talk and honestly having solutions for the problems that will arise on court,” Garber said. “Expecting everything to be perfect is setting you up for failure. So now he's much more prepared for what challenges come.”

An example is quantifying a number where Quinn — in his mental and physical energy, and pacing between points — feels at his best. The former Georgia Bulldog chose seven, so everyone helps push Quinn to consistently play every point at a seven.

Now the 21-year-old is No. 118 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings and consistently stringing together match wins. Just this weekend in Barcelona the American earned back-to-back three-set victories against Corentin Moutet and former Borna Coric. The former World No. 12 led their clash 6-2, 4-2, but the rising star showed the leaps he has made with an abundance of resilience.

“He is a very dangerous player. We fixed his serve last year. He's serving big now. The forehand is one of the biggest forehands in the world, you'll see,” Garber said. “But he's a pretty high IQ player. He understands how to play the game, and it's nice. Very good coming forward. We're trying to build an all-around tennis player that can win on every surface.”

Watch Highlights: Quinn's Houston win vs. Thompson

Garber, who began coaching Quinn after the 2023 US Open, worked with Aleksandar Kovacevic when the American faced Novak Djokovic earlier that year at Roland Garros. From that experience, Garber learned the importance of focusing on his charge’s own game for matches like Quinn will tackle Tuesday, and that “his good is good enough”.

During practice Monday, Quinn was working on something he does well and commented, “Ooh, I don't know if I can do that tomorrow”. Garber quickly responded: “Yes, you can”.

Quinn is excited for what his coach called an “earned opportunity” against Alcaraz. Win or lose, it is another chance to learn for a player Garber says is “incredibly coachable” with a “super-bubbly personality”.

“Each guy's timeline is different, and Ethan's game style made him have to suffer a little longer,” Garber said. “Believe me, there will still be suffering ahead, but he's kind of coming into his own now, and I think it's kind of the appropriate timeline. I don't think it's taken too long.”