Ferrer Changes Coaches After All These Years

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 23rd December 2013

Ferrer Changes Coaches After All These Years

epa03936954 David Ferrer following his two sets loss to Spain's Rafael Nadal during a singles Barclays ATP World Tour Finals tennis match at the O2 Arena in London, Britain, 05 November 2013. EPA/ANDY RAIN |

A well-known saying is the only constant in life is change and that certainly seems to be the case amongst the world’s leading tennis players during the current off-season. The men’s game world no.3 David Ferrer seemed entrenched in one of the most permanent coaching relationships with Javier Piles but after 15 years together that partnership has come to an end.

The news comes just days after Novak Djokovic shocking the tennis world by announcing Boris Becker would be taking over as his head coach and is equally surprising.

Piles had worked with his fellow Spaniard since Ferrer was 16 years of age. But now Jose Francisco Altur, another member of the Valencia set, will assume head coaching roles with immediate effect.

Ferrer revealed the change in coaches during a telephone press conference from Abu Dhabi on Sunday ahead of the Mubadala World Tennis Championships, which begins on December 26.

“I finished my relation with my coach Javier Piles three or four days ago,” reported Ferrer who won 20 ATP World Tour titles and reached 22 other finals including this year’s French Open, under the guidance of Pirles who once famously locked his playing charge in a cupboard as punishment for not working hard enough on the practice court.

“I am sad because it was a very familial relationship and next year I will begin with Jose Altur along with my same team. I broke my relation with Javier, it was okay, we didn’t have any personal problems. We worked together for many years and we decided to end the coaching relationship.”

Piles first met Ferrer at the Academy Equelite in Denia near Valencia after he had spent a time coaching Juan Giner, and the Fibla brothers, Manu and Pepe. “David was rated a thousand-something in the ATP, having won his first ranking points in a satellite tournament,” recalled Piles in an interview last year. “The parents saw that he needed something different to keep progressing, and I wanted to work with him. Denia was near his home in Javea, and it was a great location for me too.”

Altur, who played left-handed as a professional, won the tournament in San Marino in 1989 as a qualifier and reached a career-high ranking of No. 88 on April 9, 1990.

Together with Pancho Alvariño, the former Spanish Fed Cup captain, 45 year-old Altur owns and runs the Centro de Tenis Altur and Alvariño at Club Deportivo Saladar, where Ferrer, Igor Andreev, Anabel Medina Garrigues , Marat Safin and Alex Calatrava, among other current and former pros, have trained.

Ferrer’s first match under the guidance of Altur comes in three days’ time when he faces Stanislas Wawrinka on the opening day of the lucrative Abu Dhabi exhibition.

Topics: 10sballs.com, Abu Dhabi, Alex Calatrava, Anabel Medina Garrigues, Atp, Boris Becker, David Ferrer, Igor Andreev, Javier Piles, Jose Francisco Altur, Marat Safin, Novak Djokovic, Stanislas Wawrinka, Tennis, Tennis News