Carlos Alcaraz breaks silence on shock coach split after sad Juan Carlos Ferrero comments | Tennis | Sport

Carlos Alcaraz has finally addressed his shock split from his coach of seven years, Juan Carlos Ferrero. A former world No. 1 and Grand Slam champion, Ferrero started coaching Alcaraz when the Spaniard was just 15 years old. With Ferrero in his corner, Alcaraz became the youngest world No. 1 in ATP history and won 24 titles, including six Majors. But the pair stunned the tennis world when they announced their decision to part ways last December.

But Alcaraz has now confirmed that their split was a mutual decision as he arrived at the Australian Open without Ferrero in his corner. “Well, I just build my team, which is the same as I’m having, you know, last year,” the world No. 1 said.

“With Juan Carlos, we decide to do it. I’m just having plenty of confident of the team that I have right now. I’m just, as I said, the practices has been really well. I’m just feeling well. So just excited about the tournament begin with the team that I have right now.”

Alcaraz still has the same team otherwise, with Samuel Lopez stepping into the head coach role. And the six-time Grand Slam champion confirmed where he stood with Ferrero, explaining that they were still friends.

He continued: “Well, it is something we just decide. You know, I think chapter of life that is a time that has to be end. We decided like this. I got to say that I’m really grateful for this seven years I’ve been with Juan Carlos. I learned a lot. Probably thanks to him I’m the player that I am right now.

“But internally we decided like this. We closed this chapter in mutual. We, as I said, both are still friends, good relationship. But we just decided like this.

“I mean, there wasn’t any changes [to pre-season plans] at all. We just was really focused on the things that we had to do, the things that we think we should improve coming from this season.

“As I said, I have the same team that I had last year. Just one member missing. But the rest of the team, everyone are the same. So we didn’t change the routine at all. We just going through the pre-season and the season in the same way, probably with the improvement that I really want to do.”

One thing Alcaraz has worked on with the rest of his team is his serve, and the 22-year-old now believes he’s hitting it like one of the sport’s greats. “You wanted to say it’s really similar to [Novak] Djokovic serve. I know you want to,” he smiled after being quizzed on the new motion.

“I didn’t think about, or I wasn’t thinking about making the same serve as Djokovic. But at the end, I can even see the similarities.”