Carlos Alcaraz has shocked the tennis world after splitting with his long-term coach Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Alcaraz issued an emotional message to Ferrero to confirm the pair have parted ways, with the decision coming just before the new ATP season.
The 22-year-old, who is a six-time Grand Slam champion, has finished the season ranked number one in the world.
Ferrero has messaged Alcaraz too, with the duo having clearly enjoyed a very close relationship on and off the court.
Why do you think Carlos Alcaraz and Juan Carlos Ferrero split?
Andy Roddick makes Carlos Alcaraz prediction after Juan Carlos Ferrero split
Former world number one Andy Roddick has now shared his verdict on the split, saying on his Quick Served podcast: “The other thing is that Juan Carlos can hit really well. He plays great.
“So you are talking about warming up your player, there is a world where they go out and have a stock 28-minute drill session that he can actually get in and do.
“It’s not as if a lot of people are walking around that can handle Carlos’s ball in practice and know what he wants.
“If it’s the 24-minute warm up you look at Bob and Mike Bryan, when they warm up, they are putting it in each other’s pockets. They know what to do with each other. So you are having to recreate all these things which Carlos has known since he was 13 or 14.
“He is an otherworldly talent. I’m not saying he is not going to adjust. He will. He is going to win majors. Nothing changes in the long term if they hire correctly. But who steps in? They are going to have to teach someone a lot of the stuff that he prefers.
“[Jimmy] Connors walks in with his wealth of knowledge day one and the first five days is like you like doing this, well I like doing this. Then there is like a melt of preferences. So that kind of resets.
“The Australian Open starts in four weeks. That little stuff takes time. I think it’s great that he has someone who actually knows his pacing and what he likes to hear and if he likes to talk before matches.
“All of these are learned behaviours where all of the team around you just exists and you don’t have to explain or tell people what is going on.
“I guarantee you there is not a lot of spoken word on how you are going to deal with the next day. You wake up and you have been doing it so long that it just clicks. It’s going to be interesting. The timing is not great.”
Carlos Alcaraz hands Jannik Sinner early boost for the Australian Open
The timing of Ferrero leaving is indeed certainly not great, with the Australian Open rapidly approaching for Alcaraz and his team.
Whether or not he appoints a new coach between now and then remains to be seen, but his hard work will have already started for Melbourne.
Intriguingly, the Australian Open represents the Spaniard’s worst Grand Slam, with Alcaraz never making it beyond the quarterfinals.
Who would you like to see Juan Carlos Ferrero coach next?
- Taylor Fritz?
- Ben Shelton?
- Someone else?
In contrast, the ATP superstar has hugely impressively won the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open twice each.
And while the decision doesn’t directly involve his fierce rival Jannik Sinner, it does provide the Italian with somewhat of a boost for the first Grand Slam of the season.
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