Coco Gauff’s Ex-Coach Thinks Carlos Alcaraz Will Deal with ‘Lot of Pressure’ While Navigating Career Without Juan Carlos Ferrero

Carlos Alcaraz, for sure, will be questioned a lot once he starts his campaign for the 2026 season. During the off-season, the Spaniard ended his seven-year partnership with coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, which perhaps no one had foreseen right after Alcaraz’s career’s most successful season, as he won eight titles from 11 finals, including the French Open and the US Open.

The split shocked the tennis community, with Coco Gauff‘s former coach, Brad Gilbert, being no exception. During the Tennis Channel’s The Big T Podcast, Gilbert revealed he got texts about whether he would be the next coach of the 22-year-old the moment the latter announced Ferrero was no longer a part of his entourage.

I was in Hawaii doing clinics, and it was literally at 3:00 a.m. I started getting texts and to use the Spanish terminology of Rafa [Nadal]…is this a joke? No. I was like shocked, then I started getting texts, and it’s like, ‘BG, you going to coach him?’ And I’m like, ‘Geez, that’d be a good gig to start off coaching a guy like that. ‘

Brad Gilbert said

Ferrero had been a part of Alcaraz’s team since he was a teenager. Prior to hiring the 2003 French Open champion in 2019, Alcaraz used to train at his ex-coach’s Ferrero Tennis Academy, and all that Alcaraz has achieved was under the tutelage of the former World No.1.

He reached the top of the rankings table, lifted 24 tour-level singles titles, which include six Grand Slam trophies. It’s uncertain whether Samuel Lopez, who joined Alcaraz’s team in December 2024, will work as the main coach.

But not to mention whoever is the next coach, if there’s another one besides Samuel Lopez. You know, sometimes it’s better to work with a player when they’re on a little bit of a low point opposed to like, what you know he accomplished last year, what he’s accomplished. You know it’s a lot of pressure potentially for the next coach, and there’s a lot of pressure for Carlos, for, you know, to continue doing what he’s done.

Brad Gilbert added

Lopez’s first task for the 2026 season is to guide Alcaraz to the Australian Open title. The youngster, although he has lifted the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open titles twice, has never reached the semifinals of the Melbourne Slam, losing twice in the quarterfinal stage.

Jack Sock thinks Juan Carlos Ferrero will coach Carlos Alcaraz again if he doesn’t win the French Open

Carlos Alcaraz will be aiming to complete the three-peat at the French Open this year. In the previous two seasons, he defeated Alexander Zverev and Jannik Sinner in the finals in five sets. Former player, Jack Sock, during the Nothing Major podcast, thinks Alcaraz will rehire Juan Carlos Ferrero if he fails to defend the clay-court Major.

Work things out, put things to the side, he’s going to miss having an almost family type relationship, it seemed with him…Yeah, I think he’s back in the box before the end of the year…If he doesn’t win the French, I think he’s like back.

Before starting his 2026 campaign, the Murcia native will feature in an exhibition event in Incheon, South Korea, against Sinner. The match will be held on January 10, while the Australian Open starts on January 18th.

Sinner will enter the competition in Melbourne as the two-time defending champion. If he adds one more title to his trophy cabinet, he will become the second man in the Open Era after Novak Djokovic to win three consecutive Australian Open titles. In the previous two finals, he beat Daniil Medvedev and Zverev.

Also read: Mirra Andreeva Gets Real About ‘Impossible’ Expectations After Brisbane Win

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