In an interview for Spanish television, Juna Carlos Ferrero opened up for the first time about the split from Carlos Alcaraz. There had been many rumors online, and while you shouldn’t take everything for truth, it seems that JCF has cleared a lot of these with his remarks. But let’s take it step-by-step and see if there might even be a way back for the dream team.
The history between the two
Ever since Carlos Alcaraz burst onto the tennis tour at 18-years-old, Juan Carlos Ferrero was the coach at his side. The former World No. 1 had trained him for years before, with Alcaraz being located at his Equelite Ferrero Academy close to Alicante. And for years it seemed like this partnership could potentially last forever, with the very close-knit relationship between Ferrero and Alcaraz, a lot of success and no trouble to be seen. In 2024, they added Samuel Lopez to the team, who mainly took over for Ferrero when he needed to take care of his academy and family at home. But Ferrero remained the main coach up until the end of the 2025 season, where Alcaraz finished as the World No. 1 and on top of his powers.
This made it much more difficult to understand that reports were coming out in the off-season, stating that Ferrero and Alcaraz would part ways effective immediately. The reports didn’t state a specific reason initially, neither did the parties’ statements, but of course there was plenty of speculation. Some said that it was about money, others said that Ferrero had overthrown the Alcaraz camp over Carlos’ training attitude. For the 2026 season, Samuel Lopez was named the main coach, with brother Alvaro Alcaraz stepping in as an assistant coach, officially.
Rumors ever since
Of course, we all know what kind of season followed so far. Carlos not only started the season with a 16-0 streak but also completed the Career Slam as the youngest player to ever do it. When he stepped onto the mic in Rod Laver Arena, he did not mention his former coach, neither did he put out any statement that credits Ferrero’s part in this success. Following this, media outlets discovered that both were not following each other on social media anymore, apparently now the gold standard of mutual problems. But either way, it was clear that the split might not have been as harmonic as the initial statements wanted to make the fans believe, and this came with many rumors attached to it.
But the really surprising thing? Nobody was clearing these up – neither the Alcaraz camp, nor Ferrero. And that was how for most of the season, the rumors were continuously spreading across the tennis world – until Juan Carlos took to a Spanish tv station and talked about the issues for the first time.
What he said and what it tells us
First of all, it seems that unfollowing Carlos didn’t come as an immediate reaction to the victory speech down under or any other action by Alcaraz. Ferrero mentioned that it simply hurt to see his former player have success without him, showing that he still deeply cares and surely wasn’t the one initiating the split. He also mentioned that he still roots for Carlos to win, but that it was strange seeing it from distance and not being part of the team. This kind of confirms the initial reports, whereas the Alcaraz camp had decided to split from Ferrero because of an undisclosed matter.
While he didn’t go into specifics, the former coach mentioned that it wasn’t about money or work ethics, which were the most mentioned rumors on the internet. This still leaves a lot to your own imagination, but at the same time is a classy move by JCF, as it clears a lot of air without throwing any further topics out there. When asked what it was about, he simply stated that they couldn’t agree on certain terms and therefore jointly decided to go separate ways. This leaves room for interpretation, while also not making the appearance of anyone mishandling the situation or the other party.
Furthermore, Ferrero went on to mention how he is still rooting for Alcaraz and could even think of a reunion, once the dust has settled. In my opinion, he wanted to emphasize that it wasn’t him splitting from Carlos, but rather a decision that the family and management had forced. Given that Alcaraz is performing very well with Samuel Lopez, I wouldn’t say that there is an immediate way back, but it seems like at least from Ferrero’s side there would be no bad blood left. What is next for JCF in the meantime? It seems like there might be something in the making, as he also hinted that there would be news until the end of the year. Ferrero had previously coached Alexander Zverev and surely would be a top candidate for top players, given his success with Carlos. Maybe some of the Spanish talents, such as Rafa Jodar, might be very interested in working with Ferrero – but I guess that time will tell.
In total, it seems as if there was a conscious decision by the Alcaraz management to ditch Ferrero, maybe because they saw that it would work better with Lopez or because they couldn’t agree on some terms. Spanish media has speculated that Ferrero wasn’t a big fan of Alvaro Alcaraz being an integral part of the team, but this is all just speculation and judging from this very amicable interview, we will most likely never find out directly.