Andy Roddick suggests Juan Carlos Ferrero is better than ‘celebrity coaches’ like Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker

Andy Roddick has argued that Juan Carlos Ferrero is a cut above “celebrity coaches” like Stefan Edberg, Ivan Ljubicic and Boris Becker as he has “developed a Grand Slam champion” by nurturing Carlos Alcaraz from a young age.

Former world No 1 Ferrero has mentored Alcaraz since 2003 and he has seen him grow from “a youngster with potential to win Grand Slams and become No 1” to achieving those things.

The young Spaniard won his maiden major at the 2022 US Open and with it he became the youngest-ever world No 1 at the age of 18, last year he won Wimbledon and last week he won the French Open.

Ferrero, himself a Grand Slam winner as he won the 2003 French Open, follows in a long list of former players who have coached world No 1s as Edberg and Ljubicic coached Roger Federer; Becker coached Novak Djokovic while Ivan Lendl coached Andy Murray.

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But former world No 1 Roddick feels Ferrero deserves more credit as, unlike the abovementioned coaches, he started working with Alcaraz long before he became a superstar.

“We have seen coaches come in where it is like Edberg with Roger or Ljubicic with Roger or Becker with Novak. Yes, I get that because they need someone who is at least close to their level to actually feel like they are having a conversation,” he said on the Served With Andy Roddick podcast.

“Also in the prime of those guys’ careers, I think my cat could have coached them pretty well, they were already established.

“Ferrero too often gets lumped into this celebrity coaching thing. Right now as I stand, I don’t think I would give up my life as it currently stands to go work with a 14-year-old to develop them into a champion.

“That is not the same as someone coming in with a 21-22-year-old who’s already kind of established or won Slams. He has developed a Grand Slam champion as a celebrity coach that is extremely different.

“There’s the technical part which he’s never not prepared … like his technique is phenomenal and he’s developing a slice that looked a little weird two years ago and you kind of can see that that’s a continuation, the strategic part of it and how to deliver a strategic message and also how to articulate that message.

“…what he has done to develop the technical part at a young age to develop the relationship part, there is no breakage, they don’t yell at each other during matches.

“All of these things … to have mastered all of those things and to teach someone to play completely different than you did takes a certain amount of like a lack of ego and I don’t think Ferrero as much credit as he gets for the job he’s done I still don’t think it is enough.”