Thursday, December 18, 2025, 11:04
Samu López (Alicante, 1970) will take over the preparation of Carlos Alcaraz from next season. The world number one announced yesterday through his social networks that Juan Carlos Ferrero was no longer his coach. His replacement is on the Murcian’s own team. Samu López joined Ferrero at the end of last year and has served as Alcaraz’s head coach when Ferrero has not been able to attend the tournaments.
López has more than three decades of experience in tennis. He began polishing the diamonds of the future at the Equalite academy, later renamed the Ferrero academy. There he met Carlos Alcaraz. The Murcian took his first steps in tennis on these courts located in Villena, Alicante. While tennis players like Santiago Ventura, Nicolás Almagro and Guillermo García-López claimed his services.
The Alicante coach received the great opportunity of his career with Pablo Carreño. The Asturian achieved his best successes with López; seven ATP titles, a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, final at the 2016 US Open, semifinals at Australia 2017… The good results achieved by Carreño earned him the number ten position in the ATP world ranking.
Carreño and López separated their paths in 2024. Months later, the Alicante coach joined Ferrero’s team to serve as second coach. This season he has even served as head coach in many tournaments in the absence of Ferrero. With him at the helm, Alcaraz has lifted the trophies of Miami, Cincinnati, Queen’s, Rotterdam and Tokyo. He was also present at Roland Garros and the US Open, although in the shadow of Ferrero. Even so, the ATP has awarded both López and Ferrero with the title of best coach of the year. The two share the prize.
Although Ferrero has been linked to Alcaraz’s career since his adolescence, changes of coaches in tennis are very frequent. Djokovic and Federer made numerous facelifts to their benches. Even stranger was Rafa Nadal, who always maintained his trust in his uncle Toni, first, and in Carlos Moyá, later.
Now Samu López takes on the biggest challenge of his sports career; take Alcaraz to a higher level to unbalance the fight he maintains with Jannick Sinner for the tennis crown. «I have been with Juan Carlos Ferrero for many years and the work comes from him, I have always been close. I don’t go in again. I have known him – Alcaraz – for a long time. I think my experience of having traveled with many players can contribute,” López confessed to Eurosport at the beginning of the year.
The man from Alicante is clear about what his objective should be with the Murcian: «We have placed a lot of emphasis on him being himself. That he is very clear about what he has to do, his routines, his attitude, that he is above everything. Worry a lot about that and not so much about tennis to, from there, build Carlos Alcaraz.
