Mere days after No. 2 Novak Djokovic announced he had hired Boris Becker as his new coach, world No. 4 David Ferrer dropped the bombshell that he is ending his 15-year professional relationship with Javier Piles.

Ferrer has moved on with new coach Jose Altur for the 2014 season. The Spaniard released a statement which read, "Tomorrow, I will make a statement because I finished my relation with my coach Javier Piles three or four days ago. I am sad because it was a very familial relationship and next year I will begin with Jose Altur along 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."

The 45-year-old Piles began working with Ferrer in 1999. Altur played nine years on the ATP Tour between 1985 and 1994, with one career title.

With injuries nagging at Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, and Roger Federer appearing to lose a step in 2013, Ferrer had one of his best seasons ever, reaching No. 3 in the world in July, reaching at least the quarterfinals of all four Grand Slams and making it to his first-ever Grand Slam final, losing to Nadal at the French Open. He was 60-21 overall on the season.