The friction and dry sliding wear behavior of alumina and alumina–titania near-nanometric coatings were examined. Coatings were obtained by the suspension plasma spraying technique. Dry sliding wear tests were performed on a ball-on-disk tribometer, with an Al 2 O 3 ball as counterpart material, a normal load of 2 N, a sliding distance of 1200 m and a sliding speed of 0.1 m/s. The effect of including TiO 2 in the fabricated coatings on friction coefficient behavior, wear rates and wear damage patterns was determined. The addition of TiO 2 to the coatings was found to greatly increase wear resistance by, for example, 2.6-fold for 40 wt% of TiO 2 . The analysis of the wear surface was correlated with microstructural parameters, mechanical properties and wear rates.