Ferrero’s Zverev Split and Shelton Partnership
Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Alcaraz concluded their partnership in December 2025 after a successful seven-year collaboration.
Guided by Ferrero, Alcaraz secured six Grand Slams, eight Masters 1000 trophies, and reached the world number one ranking.
Ferrero has now partnered with world number four Ben Shelton, who defeated Alcaraz on his path to the US Open final in September.
Before joining Shelton and Alcaraz, Ferrero worked with Alexander Zverev, who became the 30th world number one since 1973 on Monday.
The partnership between Ferrero and Zverev was certainly turbulent, concluding in controversial fashion.
Juan Carlos Ferrero stated that Alexander Zverev ‘did not respect the guidelines’
Zverev and Ferrero collaborated for seven months between July 2017 and January 2018.
During this period, Zverev claimed two major ATP Tour titles: the Washington Open and the Canadian Open.
Despite this success, the duo eventually parted ways in acrimonious circumstances.
After reaching the Mexican Open final in March 2018, Zverev explained the reasons behind his decision to leave the Spaniard.
“My team is exactly the same except Juan Carlos left,” Zverev told reporters during a press conference in Mexico.
“We had a kind of a fight in Australia after the Australian Open, which is fine when it involves me and him. I have those kind of arguments [with other team members] and we are still working fine.
“That argument there involved my whole team and there was a moment where he was very disrespectful towards everybody in my team and that’s why I had to stop the relationship.”
Shortly after Zverev voiced those comments, Ferrero presented his perspective on the situation.
“When he got more confident he didn’t respect the guidelines,” Ferrero said of Zverev in an interview with Spanish outlet AS.
“What I asked from the first day is to respect the team. Among other things I asked him to be a little more punctual, telling him that it was not right that he would arrive 20 or 30 minutes late to training day after day.
Photo by Peter Staples/ATP World Tour/Getty Images
“The first months he was more disciplined and respectful, but when he got more confident he no longer respected the guidelines I marked out at the beginning.”
Ferrero is now preparing to join Ben Shelton’s coaching team nearly nine years after his split with Zverev.
Ferrero is set to join Bryan Shelton in the world number four’s coaching box. Bryan, a former professional player, is Ben’s father and coach.
Bryan has coached Ben since the young American turned professional in 2023.
How did Alexander Zverev perform after splitting from Juan Carlos Ferrero?
In 2018, Zverev continued to demonstrate why he was considered one of the top young talents on the ATP Tour.
The German player reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final at Roland Garros that year and advanced to the third round of every other major tournament.
He also won four titles: Munich, Madrid, Washington, and the ATP Finals.
These results helped Zverev achieve a career-high ranking of world number three on April 30. He finished the year as the world number four.
