A reunion hug between Alcaraz and Ferrero in Turin

With a hug between them and the network in between, Carlos Alcaraz and Juan Carlos Ferrero met again this Saturday on the occasion of the ATP Finals in Turin (Italy), the same stage where a year ago they shared their last tournament together. Ferrero attended the Piedmontese capital to advise Ben Shelton before he joined his team starting in the 2027 season, almost a year after he stopped being the coach of the seven-time major champion.

The expectation was maximum in Turin and the long-awaited reunion happened during the training session that pitted Alcaraz against Shelton, Ferrero's new pupil, in preparation for the ATP Finals, which start on Sunday.

During 2026, after the separation, there was distance between them. The coach acknowledged that they barely spoke, that Alcaraz wrote to him when he won the Australian Open on February 1, when he won in Doha at the end of that month and when he was injured. Little more. They both needed space.

"I really want to see him again"

Both left the door open to a possible reunion and there was much speculation about the reasons for their sporting schism. Ferrer maintained that breakups always hurt, but that he would keep the good. Alcaraz revealed yesterday that he "really wanted to see him again" and talk to him.

Teacher, mentor and guide, Ferrero was the person who perceived something different and special in Alcaraz, a precocious talent that could lead him to do something great. He bet on him when he was 15 years old, in 2018, and from there began a takeoff that led the Murcian to break record after record.

Under the direction of Ferrero, Alcaraz reached the 'top 100' in 2021, won his first ATP title in Umag that same year, won his first Masters 1000 in Miami in 2022, lifted his first Grand Slam at US Open 2022 and reached number one in the world at the age of 19.

Their abrupt separation, announced in December 2025, caught the entire sports world by surprise. It was one of the most important relationships between coach and pupil in Spanish tennis, and there was a bond between them beyond sports. Ferrero served as Alcaraz's guide, guiding him through the ins and outs of the most important tennis competitions on the circuit and helping him manage the pressure.

In March 2022, Ferrero, who accompanied Alcaraz at the Miami Masters 1000, had to urgently return to Spain due to the death of his father, so he missed a large part of the tournament. The Murcian reached the final, his first in this instance, and in the box, by surprise, was his coach, who returned to the United States to win his first ATP 1000 title with his pupil.

"Juan Carlos is my second father"

One of the gestures that illustrates their relationship during eight years in which Ferrero trained the El Palmar tennis player. When Alcaraz won his first major in New York, the Murcian even said: "Juan Carlos is my second father." For him, as he has stated on multiple occasions, she has been the person who made him grow as an athlete and who allowed him to make his childhood dreams come true.

The sporting relationship ended on December 17, 2025. The announcement was made by Alcaraz on social networks, when he spoke of a shared decision and stressed that, if their sporting paths had to separate, it had to be "from up there", from the top for which they had always worked.

But Ferrero responded that he would have liked to continue. Days later he explained that he was hurt, although with the peace of mind of having done his homework, and pointed out that there were certain disagreements on issues related to the future and the contract. He stated that there were no fights during the year and that the personal relationship had been good.