MELBOURNE: Carlos Alcaraz said winning the Australian Open to complete the career Grand Slam was the main goal of a season in which Juan Carlos Ferrero is not by his side as head coach for the first time since he turned professional at 15.

The world number one split with Ferrero last month, abruptly ending a seven-year partnership that delivered 24 titles including six Grand Slam crowns.

The 22-year-old would eclipse Don Budge as the youngest man to achieve the career Grand Slam by winning at Melbourne Park and the Spaniard said he was happy with his preparations and hungry for success.

“I think this 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 have prepared … I think I just made a really good pre-season, just to be in a good shape.”

Alcaraz has played only an exhibition match against world number two Jannik Sinner in the lead-up to the Australian Open, which starts on Sunday, and he is keen to get his campaign started.

“I’m just hungry for the title, hungry to have a really good result here. I’m just getting ready as much as I can,” he added. “I’m really excited about the tournament begin.”

Alcaraz will be guided by coach Samuel Lopez in the absence of 2003 French Open winner Ferrero. He said there were no bad feelings following the split.

“With Juan Carlos, we decided to do it. I’m just having plenty of confidence in the team that I have right now … the practices have gone really well. I’m feeling well,” he said. “So I’m just excited about the tournament and to begin with the team that I have right now.

“I’m really grateful for the seven years I’ve had with Juan Carlos. I learned a lot. Probably thanks to him, I’m the player that I am right now. But internally we decided like this. We closed this chapter in mutual. We’re both still friends, [we have a] good relationship.”

Meanwhile, the greatest threat to Alcaraz’s quest for a career Grand Slam is rival Jannik Sinner.

The Italian served a three-month suspension for twice testing positive for a banned anabolic steroid in 2024, but the world number two said on Friday that the ban last year made him stronger as a person and more relaxed on court.

“Last year was definitely a much more difficult situation because in this moment last year I didn’t know exa­ctly what’s going to happen,” he said. “So I tried still to enjoy it when I went out on the court, but still had it in my head kind of.

“It was difficult for me, but also for the family. I tried to stay with the people I really love, which at times worked very well. At times it was a bit disappointing, too.”

The Italian will get his campaign under way against France’s Hugo Gaston, with master coach Darren Cahill again in his corner.

KEYS READY TO SOAK UP ‘PINCH-ME MOMENTS’

On the women’s side, Madison Keys is soaking up the fun parts of returning to the Australian Open as defending champion and the Ameri­can said on Friday she is eager 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. Getting to see those, it’s something you dream of in your career,” she told reporters.

“I have not seen my name in the tunnel yet. I hope I can go in there when there’s no one else so I can take a picture and send it to my mom.

“I’ve always remembered walking through that tunnel and seeing all the names and everything. It was a little bit of a pinch-me moment where I was like, ‘Wow, I’m going to be up there.’”

The 30-year-old, who beat both world number two Iga Swiatek and number one Aryna Sabalenka in the semis and final last year, acknowledged there was pressure of defending her maiden Grand Slam title but she was also embracing the challenge.

“Even though I’ve been on tour for a long time, this is also still my first experience as that [defending champion],” she said.

“I’m really trying to just kind of embrace that and take it in and soak it in, because I feel like so often we look back and we regret that, even in the hard moments that were stressful and pressure and all that, we didn’t find all the fun parts of it.”

Meanwhile, Swiatek, unlike Alca­raz, dismissed suggestions the career slam is driving her Australian Open campaign this year, with the world number two saying on Friday that she tries to block out outside noise and focus only on “grinding match by match”.

“Honestly, since the beginning of the year, there are many people coming to me and talking to me about it. I’m really just focusing on day-by-day work. This is how it’s always been for me,” Swiatek told reporters.

“This is how I actually was able to achieve the success that I already have, just focusing really on grinding match by match. Winning a Grand Slam is tough, a lot of things have to come together to do that.

“It’s a tough tournament, so I have no expectations. Obviously it would be a dream come true. This is not my clear goal that I wake up with. I’m thinking more about how I want to play, what I want to improve day by day.”

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2026