Former world No 1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov has given his take on Carlos Alcaraz’s decision to part ways with Juan Carlos Ferrero and has suggested “it must have been hard to deal with him [Alcaraz] lately” due to “off-court temptations”.
Just a few weeks after the conclusion of the 2025 tennis season, Alcaraz dropped a bombshell as he announced he had split from Ferrero following seven successful years that saw him win six Grand Slams and become world No 1.
The decision was a shock to most in the tennis community, but it has since emerged that there had been tension between Alcaraz’s entourage – which includes his father Carlos Alcaraz Senior – and Ferrero while there have also been reports that the parties could not settle on a new contract.
And now two-time Grand Slam winner Kafelnikov has shared his thoughts on the matter and believes Alcaraz likely struggled to resist the “outside noise” that comes with being successful and made life difficult for the “extremely professional”.
In an interview with CLAY, he said: “Look, it’s always easy to talk when you’re not on the inside and you don’t know exactly what happened behind the scenes.
“Knowing that Juan Carlos is extremely professional – he was exactly the same as a player – I’m sure he wants the very best from his players, and his standards of professionalism are very high.
“Probably, with Carlos being Spanish, very young, and attracted to all the off-court temptations that come with success… it must have been hard to deal with him lately.
“It’s understandable – you’re 22 years old, all the girls are chasing you, there’s fame and everything that goes with it. Nobody could resist that at such a young age.
“Juan Carlos probably saw all of this and was trying to separate the work on court from all the outside noise. That’s probably where the clash happened, at least from my perspective.”
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Ferrero has been in Alcaraz’s box since he made his breakthrough and they won 24 ATP singles titles together while the Spaniard also finished as year-end No 1 twice (2022 and 2025).
He has twice won the ATP Tour Player of the Year Award (2022 and 2025) while Ferrero was named the Coach of the Year in both those years.
Samuel Lopez, who joined the coaching set-up on a full-time basis ahead of the 2025 season has taken over as coach, but how will Ferrero’s absence affect Alcaraz?
“To be honest, I have no idea how he is going to react. But why would you end such a happy partnership in the first place?” Kafelnikov wondered.
“At least it looked like it was happy… There were never any signs that they would go their separate ways – winning Slams, being number one in the world… I am sure that Carlos’s father has a lot to do with this split, not Carlos himself. Now we just have to wait and see what happens next.”