Carlos Alcaraz’s coaches beat Jannik Sinner’s mentors to top ATP award
Juan Carlos Ferrero and Samuel Lopez have scooped the ATP Coach of the Year Award for the 2025 season after they steeered Carlos Alcaraz to two Grand Slam titles and the year-end No 1 ranking.
It is the second time that 2003 French Open champion Ferrero has received the top honour as he also earned the gong in 2022 when he guided Alcaraz to his maiden major at the US Open with the then teenager also becoming the youngest year-end No 1 at the age of 19.
Lopez joined the team ahead of the 2025 season, having previously stood in for Ferrero at the 2024 Australian Open, and shared the coaching responsibilities with Ferrero at ATP Tour events, but both were in Alcaraz’s box when he won the French Open and US Open.
The Spaniards were up against Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi (Jannik Sinner’s coaches), Benjamin Balleret (Valentin Vacherot), Frederic Fontang (Felix Auger-Aliassime) and Bryan Shelton (Ben Shelton), but won the award that is voted for by ATP coaches.
It is the second award of the year for Team Carlos Alcaraz as the player was scooped the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award for the second consecutive year.
“I’m so happy with the award,” Ferrero told ATPTour.com. “I was in no doubt that Samuel would fit our working philosophy really well, because we’ve been working together for many years and he knows exactly what I want for Carlos. He’s done great work from the start.”
Lopez stated: “Everything was easy, because the results came. I’ve known Juan Carlos since he was ten years old and Carlos since he took his first steps at the [Ferrero Tennis] Academy.
“I was with Pablo [Carreno Busta] during that period, but we’d shared a lot of moments together. The working atmosphere is very relaxed because we’ve always known each other and we understood what Carlos needed.”
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The pair led Alcaraz to eight titles this year as he successfully defended his Roland Garros crown and also won the US Open.
He also finished runner-up to Sinner at Wimbledon and the ATP Finals while he also won the Monte Carlo Masters, Italian Open, Cincinnati Open, Rotterdam Open, Queen’s Club Championship and Japan Open.
After finishing the year at No 3 in 2024, Alcaraz returned to No 1 in the ATP Rankings after his US Open title run and secured the year-end No 1 spot with a run to the final of the ATP Finals.
Alcaraz finished with a 71-9 win-loss record in 2025.
“Honestly, since I started this project, it’s never been a goal to win Coach of the Year,” Ferrero said. “But for the work to be recognised by other coaches who understand as we do how complicated it is… it means a lot to me to have won it twice now. This year it’s doubly fulfilling because I’m sharing it with Samuel.”
Lopez added: “Maybe I freshened things up, because Juan Carlos has been with him for seven years and I’m new. I know the team and we’ve all contributed equally, but in different ways. Above all, we’ve really insisted that the work has to be fun.”
