Carlos Alcaraz was asked what he made of his former coach Juan Carlos Ferrero joining Ben Shelton for 2027. His answer was generous, with one pointed line at the end.
The news was a surprise even by the standards of the off-season. Ferrero spent six years with Alcaraz, from 2019 to 2025, and the pair won six Grand Slam titles and eight Masters 1000 titles together, as Tennis365 recounts. Now Ferrero is working for the player who knocked Alcaraz out of this year’s US Open quarter-finals.
Alcaraz: “I will be aware of him”
After winning the Vienna Open, Alcaraz was asked about it. “If it is true I think it’s going to be a great addition to Ben’s team and I think Juanki [Juan Carlos Ferrero] is going to do great and it’s going to help him a lot to increase his level even more so I will be aware of him,” he said, in comments reported by Tennis365.
Read quickly, that is graciousness. Read slowly, it is also a warning. Alcaraz is saying a coach who knows his game from the inside has just moved to one of the men most capable of beating him. The phrase “I will be aware of him” is the diplomatic version of “I know what he knows”.
What Shelton gets
Shelton announced the move on Instagram. “Huge addition to my team for this upcoming season! Juan Carlos Ferrero, excited to get started and put in the work this offseason… let’s get it,” he wrote. Ferrero said he was very excited to confirm his return to the tour in 2027 “alongside Ben Shelton and his current team”, which suggests Shelton’s existing coaching set-up stays in place.
The numbers explain the appeal. Shelton is world No. 4 after a season that has brought four titles, including the Canadian Open, and his first Grand Slam final, which he lost to Alexander Zverev at the US Open, according to Tennis365. Alcaraz is No. 3, with a gap of 3,350 ranking points between them. Alcaraz leads their head-to-head 3-1, but Shelton’s one win came in a five-set US Open quarter-final this year.
Clay is the obvious target. Tennis365 notes that Shelton has struggled on the surface more than any other, and Ferrero, who won Roland Garros in 2003, was a clay-court specialist. If Ferrero can improve Shelton’s movement and patterns on clay, that changes the French Open picture.
The counter-view: coaching is not a magic wand
Not every Ferrero partnership has been a success. His spell with Zverev, from 2017 to 2018, is described by Tennis365 as largely unsuccessful, producing one Masters 1000 title. That is a reminder that Alcaraz’s trophies were the product of a player and coach who spent six years together, not just of a famous name on the team sheet.
There is a second point. Shelton has already reached a major final and a Masters title without Ferrero. So the idea that he needs a coach to complete him is an assumption, not a given.
That puts Alcaraz’s sentence in context. His public line is that it will help Shelton “a lot”. It is fair to read the last line as caution, since a coach who knows how a player thinks under pressure is useful information for a rival. We have covered the 2027 conversation about the next generation already this week, and this coaching move adds a new strand to it.
The test will arrive early. Whether Shelton and Ferrero click or not, 2027 will show quickly, and Alcaraz has told everyone he is watching.
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