Juan Carlos Ferrero has contrasted the “professionalism” of Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev during his two separate coaching stints with the pair.

Alcaraz ended his seven-year partnership with Ferrero in December last year after the pair won seven Grand Slams together and reached the world No 1 ranking.

That move seemed vindicated after the Spaniard completed the career Grand Slam at this year’s Australian Open, with Samuel Lopez as his main coach, as he became the youngest player ever to achieve the feat at 22.

Ahead of Ferrero linking up with a new unnamed player soon, the former French Open champion has spoken about nurturing a teenage Alcaraz, without ever trying to mould him in his own image.

He told Eurosport, “My goals with Carlos were very clear. It was to truly help a young man, who was 15 when we started and had spectacular qualities, improve day by day. I wasn’t really thinking about putting my own things into him, but rather trying to adapt to who he was.

More ATP Tour News

Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for tennis coverage you can trust.

“It’s true that the experience of having played, of having achieved certain things, can influence your guidance. But at no point did I think that I was going to make him just like me. No, no, nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, I tried to adapt to all the qualities he had in order to fully develop them.”

While Ferrero sometimes came to blows with Alcaraz over the youngster’s insistence on partying in Ibiza in between the French Open and Wimbledon in the past, he hasn’t openly criticised his professionalism.

That is not the case for a young Zverev, who had Ferrero in his corner for a few months in 2017 when he was 20. The 46-year-old was not too complimentary about the German for the short time they worked together.

He added, “With Zverev, let’s just say we didn’t share the same understanding of the professionalism involved in being a tennis player. Our cultures are very different. He’s Russian-German, I’m Spanish. We thought differently and, in the end, we each decided to go our separate ways.”

However, Ferrero was full of praise for the 29-year-old after he won the French Open and US Open this year, in addition to him being on the cusp of becoming world No 1 for the first time.

The 6ft 6in player has been coached by his father, Alexander Zverev Sr, for decades, and after years of hard work, that graft has paid off, albeit it has been helped by long-term injuries for Alcaraz and world No 1 Jannik Sinner.

“I think it’s well-deserved,” Ferrero said. “He’s a player who I believe has been working towards this for a long time. Perhaps his level and development had stagnated a bit over the last three or four years. But in the last year and a half, I think he’s realised this and has really been trying to improve.

“It just so happens that neither Carlos nor Jannik [Sinner] have been there. He’s taken advantage of the opportunity. But I think that now, having seized that opportunity, he’s going to be mentally stronger to try and compete on equal terms with them.”