Carlos Alcaraz’s camp wanted to remove Juan Carlos Ferrero as coach a year ago and they had already lined up a high-profile replacement, but the player himself was against it, according to Spanish journalist Jose Moron.
One of the most successful partnerships came to an end after the 2025 season as Alcaraz announced that he had parted ways with Ferrero following seven years that delivered six Grand Slam titles, eight ATP Masters 1000 trophies and two year-end No 1 crowns.
Although the split came as a shock to the tennis community, many believe that there had been signs of tension between Alcaraz’s entourage and Ferrero with the relationship reaching a point a no return in December when the coach opted not to accept the terms of contract that was put on the table.
In an interview with Marca, Ferrero admitted that both parties were pulling in different directions as he stated: “As with all contracts, one side pulls in one direction and the other in another. Carlos’s camp thinks about what’s best for him, and mine thinks about what’s best for me. There were certain issues on which both parties disagreed.”
But according to Punto de Break’s Moron, the decision to go their separate ways did not come out of the blue as those close to Alcaraz wanted to get rid of the 2003 French Open champion last year as the player was suffering from “mental burnout”.
“2024 was a very good year, he wins Roland Garros, he wins Wimbledon again, but then he has another stretch, especially after the Olympic Games, where Carlos Alcaraz loses his way a bit, just like in 2023,” he said on the Punto de Break YouTube Channel.
“At the end of the season, Alcaraz looked completely overwhelmed; I mean, he ends up breaking his racket in Cincinnati on an absolutely, well, fateful day for him.
“This is compounded by a very, very surprising defeat in the second round of the US Open. And that’s where, let’s say, Alcaraz starts to say, in a way, that he wasn’t mentally present, while from Juan Carlos’s side, he was being pressured to, ‘hey we have to keep going, we’re at the US Open, hey, now comes the Asian tour, the end of the season’.
“Alcaraz is showing signs of mental burnout, and those around Alcaraz here understand that all of this is mainly due to, let’s say, the way Ferrero wanted Alcaraz to manage his career, which isn’t ideal for Carlos.”
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Besides losing early at the US Open, Alcaraz was also knocked out in the round-robin phase of the ATP Finals while he won only one tournament – the China Open – following his Wimbledon title defence.
He also made a sluggish start to 2025, losing in the quarter-final of the Australian Open before finding form at the Rotterdam Open as he won his maiden indoor title.
Moron added that the Alcaraz camp was ready to pull the trigger until the tennis star told them otherwise, as he also revealed they had their eye on former world No 1 Andy Murray as a replacement, but Novak Djokovic was ahead of the game as he had already managed to sign Murray as his coach.
“It’s here where, at the end of 2024, a moment of tremendous tension occurs. This that has happened now in 2025, this breakup was going to happen last year, exactly a year ago, when at the end of the season, they went back to renegotiating Juan Carlos Ferrero’s annual contract, and so on,” Moron continued.
“Carlos Alcaraz’s entourage was not at all happy with what had happened in the last three months because they thought that all of this was caused by, you know, Juan Carlos is very strict.
“It’s that he understands tennis in a certain way, and here, where it was already made, it became even more evident. He understands tennis one way, and it seems Carlos wanted to go in a different direction.
“And around here, he saw it and said, ‘Hey, we don’t think this is going to work out.’ And what I’m told is that last year, Carlos Alcaraz’s entourage already wanted to do what happened this year, which is to remove Juan Carlos Ferrero and bring in another coach.
“They mentioned a name to me, we already talked about it when we discussed the topic of possible coaches for Carlos Alcaraz; the name they had in mind was Andy Murray. They wanted Andy Murray as Carlos Alcaraz’s coach, but Djokovic beat them to it, taking Murray.
“And another thing that happened, everything came to a halt, and what happened next? I’m told is that Carlos Alcaraz stopped the idea of Juan Carlos leaving the team in 2024. At the end of last year, exactly a year ago, I repeat, what has happened now was going to happen, they intended to do it, but it was Carlos Alcaraz who stopped it.
“With this, I want to make it clear that the relationship between Carlos Alcaraz and Juan Carlos Ferrero has always been magnificent, tremendously good, there’s no buts about it.”