Australian Open 2026: Carlos Alcaraz says split from Juan Carlos Ferrero was ‘a chapter of life that needs to end’

Former world number one Ferrero led his fellow Spaniard Alcaraz to all six major victories and once described him as his “fourth child.”

British player Jodi Burge told BBC Radio 5 Live: “The whole situation is a bit strange, I did not expect this to happen at all.”

“We can all speculate and speculate, but from the experience of stopping with coaches, sometimes it’s innocent and there’s not much to it, it doesn’t work.

“But that coaching relationship has been a success – with what he’s achieved, how could it not be? It’s really amazing.”

After the separation, Ferrero told the Spanish sports newspaper Marca, external He thought things would continue as they were and that he would head to the Australian Open as Alcaraz’s coach.

However, the 2003 French Open winner said there were “certain issues” when it came to settling contracts.

Ferrero said: “Maybe it would have been possible to resolve the differences if we had sat down to talk, but in the end we did not do that, and we decided not to continue.”

“It’s obviously been a drastic change for everyone. Adjusting is not easy. For me, this is clearly not a fun time at all.”

Former British player Naomi Broady said she noticed “cracks” in the pair’s relationship when she commented on Alcaraz’s defeat to Cameron Norrie at the Paris Masters in October.

“Alcaraz played absolutely terribly,” Brody said. “There was a lot of tension.”

He added: “You couldn’t see it from him on the field, but he was screaming in the penalty area and was falling back a little bit, so there were definitely cracks.”

Samuel Lopez – who joined Alcaraz in 2024 and coached him when Ferrero missed tournaments for personal reasons – remained in his team.

“I have the same team I had last year. Only one member is missing. But the rest of the team, everyone is the same,” Alcaraz added.