Australian Open 2026: Tennis fans divided over sad detail in photo of Carlos Alcaraz after final

Tennis fans are expressing their sadness over what many feel was a glaring omission from Carlos Alcaraz’s celebrations after winning the Australian Open on Sunday night. Although some feel it was a change that proved the catalyst for the 22-year-old to finally win in Australia.

Alcaraz won his seventh career grand slam title on Sunday night after beating Novak Djokovic in four sets. He’d already won two titles each at the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open, but this was the Spaniard’s first at the Australian Open.

He’s now the youngest man ever to win the career grand slam and youngest to seven career majors. Crucially, this was Alcaraz’s first grand slam title without long-time coach Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Alcaraz and Ferrero split in December after seven years together, in which they won 24 titles and six grand slams. Ferrero guided Alcaraz from a 15-year-old to a multiple grand slam champion, but they’ve since gone their separate ways.

The decision was publicly labelled a mutual one, although it’s believed Alcaraz and his family wanted a full-time coach who was willing to do more travel than Ferrero. It’s been reported that former World No.1 Ferrero wanted to pick and choose which tournaments he attended throughout the year.

On Sunday night, many found it sad that Ferrero was missing from the post-match photos. Leading journalist Bastien Fachan wrote online: “Can’t help thinking about Juan Carlos Ferrero. He gave the last seven years of his life for this. Not in the picture today, but his name all over it.”

Carlos Alcaraz plays down Juan Carlos Ferrero factor

Many more made similar comments, although a lot disagreed and argued the decision might have been the spark that Alcaraz actually needed to break through at the Australian Open. Before this year he’d never made it past the quarters in Melbourne despite being a six-time grand slam champ and World No.1.

When asked in his post-match press conference whether he wanted to prove the doubters wrong who said he couldn’t win without Ferrero, Alcaraz replied: “Not really, to be honest…I didn’t think about those people that had doubts about it. I came here playing for myself and playing for my team. I’m just happy to prove all the people were wrong.”

During his on-court speech he made the telling comment that: “Nobody knows how hard I’ve been working to get this trophy. I just chased this moment so much. The pre-season was a bit of a rollercoaster emotionally.”