MELBOURNE: Carlos Alcaraz said winning the Australian Open to complete the career Grand Slam was the main goal in a season in which Juan Carlos Ferrero is not at his side as head coach for the first time since he turned professional at 15.
The world number one parted ways with Ferrero last month, abruptly ending a seven-year partnership that brought him 24 titles, including six Grand Slam crowns.
The 22-year-old would eclipse Don Budge as the youngest man to win a career Grand Slam by winning at Melbourne Park and the Spaniard said he was happy with his preparation and hungry for success.
“I think that’s my main goal for this year. It’s the first tournament, the main goal,” Alcaraz told reporters on Friday.
“So it’s going to be really interesting for me how I prepared… I think I just had a really good pre-season, just to be in good shape.”
Alcaraz has played just one exhibition match against world number two Jannik Sinner before the Australian Open, which begins on Sunday, and he is eager to get his campaign underway.
“I’m just hungry for the title, hungry to have a really good result here. I’m just preparing as much as possible,” he added. “I’m really excited about the start of the tournament.”
Alcaraz will be guided by coach Samuel Lopez in the absence of 2003 Roland-Garros winner Ferrero. He said there were no bad feelings after the separation.
“With Juan Carlos we decided to do it. I just have a lot of confidence in the team I have at the moment… the training has gone very well. I feel good,” he said. “So I’m just excited about the tournament and starting with the team that I have right now.
“I’m really grateful for the seven years I spent with Juan Carlos. I learned a lot. Probably thanks to him, I am the player I am now. But internally we decided this way. We closed that chapter together. We are both still friends, (we have) a good relationship.”
Meanwhile, the biggest threat to Alcaraz’s quest for a career Grand Slam is his rival Jannik Sinner.
The Italian served a three-month suspension for twice testing positive for an anabolic steroid banned in 2024, but the world number two said on Friday that last year’s ban had made him stronger as a person and more relaxed on the pitch.
“Last year was definitely a much tougher situation because at that point I didn’t know exactly what was going to happen,” he said. “So I tried to enjoy it when I went out on the field, but I always had it in mind.
“It was difficult for me, but also for the family. I tried to stay with the people I really love, which sometimes worked very well. Sometimes it was a little disappointing too.”
The Italian will begin his campaign against Frenchman Hugo Gaston, with master trainer Darren Cahill in his corner once again.
KEYS READY TO IMPROVE “PINCH-ME MOMENTS”
On the women’s side, Madison Keys is soaking up the fun aspects of her return to the Australian Open as defending champion and the American said on Friday she couldn’t wait to get a photo with her name in the champions’ tunnel to send to her mother.
“There’s a really cool photo of me holding the trophy. Seeing them is something you dream of in your career,” she told reporters.
“I haven’t seen my name in the tunnel yet. I hope I can go in when no one else is there so I can take a photo and send it to my mother.
“I always remember going through that tunnel and seeing all the names and everything. It was a little pinch-me moment where I was like, ‘Wow, I’m going to be up there.'”
The 30-year-old, who beat world number two Iga Swiatek and number one Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-final and final last year, admitted there was pressure to defend her first Grand Slam title, but she was also embracing the challenge.
“Even though I have been on tour for a long time, this is also my first experience as the defending champion,” she said.
“I’m really trying to accept that and absorb it and soak it in, because I feel like so often we look back and regret that even in the tough times that were stressful and pressured and all that, we didn’t find all the fun aspects of it.”
Meanwhile, Swiatek, unlike Alcaraz, dismissed suggestions that the career slam was the driving force behind her Australian Open campaign this year, with the world number two saying on Friday that she was trying to block out the outside noise and focus only on “grinding match by match”.
“Honestly, since the beginning of the year, a lot of people come up to me and talk to me about it. I just focus on my daily work. That’s how it’s always been for me,” Swiatek told reporters.
“That’s how I was able to achieve the success I already have, by really focusing on working match by match. Winning a Grand Slam is difficult, a lot of things have to come together to achieve it.
“It’s a tough tournament, so I don’t have any expectations. It would obviously be a dream come true. It’s not my clear goal that I wake up with. I think more about how I want to play, what I want to improve day by day.”
Published in Dawn, January 17, 2026
