Carlos Alcaraz will be coached by Samuel Lopez next year after the 54-year-old agreed to join the player’s backroom team. The world No.3 will get his 2025 season underway at the Australian Open in January as he looks to win the Grand Slam for the first time.
Lopez worked with Alcaraz at this year’s Australian Open after the star’s head coach Juan Carlos Ferrero was forced to stay at home to recover from a knee operation.
And he was also part of the player’s set-up at the Miami Open in 2022 as well as the last two editions of the cinch Championships in London.
Ferrero will remain as the main figurehead of Alcaraz’s coaching team, with the 2003 French Open champion linking-up with his compatriot when the player was only 16.
Lopez will come on board ahead of the Rotterdam Open in February after recently ending his nine-year association with Pablo Carreno Busta.
And Alcaraz explained ahead of an exhibition match in Madison Square Garden in New York: “I think Samuel, for me, is one of the best coaches that we have on Tour.”
Discussing the relationship between Lopez and Ferrero, he added: “They trust each other 100 per cent 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.”
Alcaraz has chosen not to enter any tournaments ahead of the Australian Open and will instead play two charity matches in the lead-up to the Grand Slam.
The 21-year-old has only ever played at the Australian Open three times and has never made it beyond the quarter-finals. He lost in the second round in 2021, before falling at the third-round stage a year later.
He reached the last-eight earlier this year but was eventually dispatched by Aleander Zverev in four sets.
The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam that Alcaraz has failed to win in his career, with the ace getting his hands on the Wimbledon trophy for the second consecutive season earlier this year just weeks after winning his first French Open title. He tasted glory at the US Open in 2022.
And Alcaraz fired a warning to 10-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, who will be eyeing up a record-extending 25th Grand Slam title at Melbourne Park.
“I’m sure I’ll be the Australian champion sooner or later,” the Spaniard insisted. “Let’s hope it happens this year. For me it is very important to complete the career Grand Slam.”