Even the best stories come to an end… After seven years together, six Grand Slam titles, the top of the ATP and 24 trophies in total, Carlos Alcaraz and his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero have ended their collaboration. A surprise announcement which sounds like an explosion in the world of tennis, as the world number 1 and his mentor had built a close relationship over the seasons. “Carlitos”, who arrived as a teenager at the Equelite academy near Alicante, could not help but look for “Juanki” after each point played.
“They are very different on a personal level but very similar on a tennis level,” Antonio Martinez Cascales, himself mentor of the 2003 Roland-Garros winner and founder of Equelite, told us. Carlos is an open, very extroverted boy while Juan Carlos is the exact opposite. An introvert who only reveals himself when he has confidence. On a court, they don’t have the same way of playing at all, but they are similar in their sense of competition, their vision and their state of mind. »
It is very difficult for me to write this post… After more than seven years together, Juanki and I have decided to end our time together as coach and player.
Thank you for making childhood dreams come true. We started this path when I was just a kid, and during… pic.twitter.com/D4GSxYsZUY
— Carlos Alcaraz (@carlosalcaraz) December 17, 2025
In 2018, at the age of fifteen, Alcaraz was still far from the world elite when his agent Albert Molina took him for a test in the stronghold of the former world number 1. Without thinking for a moment of putting it in the almost too expert hands of Ferrero.
“No one could have thought that Juan Carlos was going to take Carlos under his wing,” smiles Martinez Cascales. He had just finished his first coaching experience with Zverev and it would have been natural for him to leave with a player of this caliber. But he saw there a project which gave him a lot of illusion. Helping a young person to grow and train, as I did with him. »
The three-time winner of the Davis Cup then refused lucrative part-time offers from big names like Dominic Thiem or Juan Martin Del Potro to devote 100% of his energy to this talent that he sees going very far. Well seen. The duo will quickly climb the ranks to victory in the Grand Slam and first place in the ATP in September 2022. Never has a world number 1 been so precocious. The two Spaniards forge a bond that goes far beyond the courts.
“His approach to work and the sacrifices to be made is different from ours”
“We always have the same close relationship which varies depending on the time of day,” Ferrero explained last year. There are many in which I am the outright coach. There are others where I’m the friend, because we joke and we’re together all the time. And the paternal side, I leave it to his father! In fact, we are almost one. We think the same way. No need to say too much. One look is enough and we know what the other is thinking. »
In 2023, the forty-year-old even explained that he considered his student to be his fourth child. “I have three children at home, and he is the fourth,” he said. I love the relationship we’ve created, it’s not just a coach and his player. We created something stronger. »
A proximity which sometimes played (bad) tricks on the young Murcian. Incapable of finding solutions and getting out of difficult situations without the presence of his guide in the stands. Despite his genius and his unpredictable side – which make him the only player on the circuit capable of destabilizing the metronome Jannik Sinner – Alcaraz has long shown the need to be (tele)guided.
Alcaraz will immediately continue with Samuel Lopez
In recent months, the finalist of the Masters 2025 has especially emancipated himself outside the tennis framework, making choices, particularly in terms of vacations, which have not particularly delighted his trainer. To the point that Ferrero had expressed some doubts in a Netflix documentary (“A mi manera”) dedicated to Alcaraz.
“His approach to work and the sacrifices to be made is different from ours,” he admitted. So different that it sometimes makes me doubt and I don’t know if that’s how you become the best player in history. »
Obviously to his great regret, Ferrero will watch the rest – and the answer to his questions – be written without him. Alcaraz, who is aiming for a first victory at the Australian Open in January, will immediately continue with Samuel Lopez, already at his side in 2025, before expanding his staff. But he will have to learn to live without the man who whispered in his ear and whose brain he shared…
