Carlos Alcaraz recently parted with chief coach Juan Carlos Ferrero after a long and successful partnership. The pair officially parted ways in December 2025, ending a seven-year-long partnership. Since then, Ferrero has broken his silence on his departure and claimed that it wasn’t Alcaraz’s decision, but rather a decision made by the World No. 1 team.
Dropping his verdict on the split, ex-World No. 1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov slammed Alcaraz for the decision and felt that Ferrero’s demand for high standards might have clashed with the player.
“Knowing that Juan Carlos is very professional – he was as a player as well – I am sure that he wants absolute commitment from his players and that his demands in terms of professionalism are very high. Probably, given that Carlos is Spanish, very young, and attracted to all external temptations… he has been difficult to work with lately,” he said.
“It’s understandable – he’s 22 years old, all the girls are after him, there’s fame and everything that goes with it. No one could resist at such a young age. Juan Carlos probably saw that and was trying to separate training and tennis from all the noise. This, from my perspective, is probably where the conflict occurred.”
Kafelnikov also attributed the split to Alcaraz’s father. “Honestly, I have no idea how he will react. But why would you end such a successful collaboration anyway? At least they seemed to be happy… There was never any sign that they were going to break up – they were winning slams, they were number one in the world… I’m sure Carlos’ father has a lot to do with this split, not Carlos himself. We’ll see what happens now,” he said.
After his split, Ferrero also revealed that a contract dispute with the player’s team was a key factor in his parting ways.
