Carlos Alcaraz will have an extra coach with him when the 2025 season starts.
The four-time Grand Slam champion has hired Samuel Lopez to join his team and work alongside Juan Carlos Ferrero, who has been coaching Alcaraz since he was 15.
Lopez has previously coached Ferrero, among other players. Alcaraz, who is 21, believes that this new coaching partnership can help him return to the top of the rankings.
“I think Samuel, for me, is one of the best coaches that we have on tour,” Alcaraz said Tuesday, the day before a planned exhibition match against Ben Shelton at Madison Square Garden.
“They trust each other 100 percent and being able to travel with both, for me, it’s going to be great. I think I’m going to grow as a player thanks to them. I think we are going to work pretty hard and pretty good for the next season and the next years. Hopefully we are going to make good results together.”
Lopez was a member of Spain’s Olympic team in 2000 and 2012. He had been working with Pablo Carreño Busta, who thanked Lopez for nine seasons together in an Instagram post this weekend.
Alcaraz became the youngest player to reach No. 1 in the ATP rankings after winning the U.S. Open in 2022 at the age of 19. He went on to win two Wimbledon titles and one at the French Open, where Ferrero won the title in 2003.
Alcaraz finished this year ranked No. 3. He said his relationship with Ferrero is still strong, giving the coach credit for shaping him into the player and person he is today. He also mentioned that he now has a bigger voice at their academy.
“They’re listening to me much more than before,” Alcaraz said. “Obviously when I was 16 years old I had nothing to say. I was just mouth closed and ears open and did whatever he said. Right now I’m doing more things for myself, let’s say I’m taking more decisions, serious decisions.
“So I think (we) both are doing great work together as a person as well just to make sure this relationship is still pretty good and the love that we have for each other is huge. So I admire him as a professional but as a person as well.”
U.S. Open women’s runner-up Jessica Pegula and semifinalist Emma Navarro will also compete in the Garden Cup.
