At the end of each season, the ATP presents its awards – for those of the “Coach of the Year”, there are two outsider candidates in addition to the obvious ones.
Strictly in line with the world rankings, at least in the foremost regions, the ATP has been nominated as coach of the year 2017. And why wouldn’t I be? Toni Nadal in last year’s tour and neo-coach Carlos Moya have once again taken Rafael Nadal to the top of the world rankings, winning two Grand Slam tournaments in Roland Garros and the US Open. Nadal will be the best in the industry, regardless of a possible rejection of the ATP finals due to his knee problems, which forced him to give up in Paris-Bércy.
Ivan Ljubicicic, on the other hand, has worked with Roger Federer to refine one of the Swiss’s barely perceptible weaknesses: the backhand. The successes could already be seen in the very first Grand Slam tournament of the year, when Federer held Rafael Nadal in check with his weaker shot – as he did at all the other meetings in Indian Wells, Miami and last in Shanghai in 2017.
Alexander Zverev sr. is also nominated, the son of Sascha, who has led to third place in the world ranking. Since this summer in association with the former number one Juan Carlos Ferrero. Zverev jr. is currently in third place in the world rankings, he will compete against Stefanos Tsitsipas in Milan on Tuesday, then travel to London for his first ATP finals.
The other two candidates could be placed in the categories “newcomer” and “comeback player”: Martin Laurendeau takes care of the concerns of Denis Shapovalov, who caused a sensation not only with his entry into the semi-final of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Montréal. Last year’s Wimbledon Junior Winner will finish the season at 50th place in the World Ranking, without worrying about qualifying for the majors.
That leaves Neville Godwin. The former South African top player has brought his protégé Kevin Anderson very close to the top ten, not least thanks to Anderson’s entry into the final of the US Open. There, of course, the wisdom of Neville Godwin was at the end – after all, Toni Nadal and Carlos Moya coached against him there.
Last year, the award went to Magnus Norman, Stan Wawrinka’s coach. Norman and the currently convalescent Swiss have meanwhile terminated their cooperation.