A completely crazy tennis freak could create a tennis trainer quartet – at least we’ll try to give you a rough overview of the interplay of the tour.
Yes yes, also the men have mixed something recently in the trainer business. Let’s take a look at the Big Four: Novak Djokovic has placed Radek Stepanek next to Andre Agassi and got data guru Craig O’ Shannessy for the strategic percentages. Rafael Nadal had already made provision for this in 2017 with Carlos Moya, who will take over sole command after Uncle Toni’s farewell.
Andy Murray has to do without Ivan Lendl again, which didn’t work out very well at the first attempt, Jamie Delgado seems to stay in the team. And Roger Federer? I really had no reason to go beyond the successful team Severin Lüthi/Ivan Ljubicicic. Though, we remember, the most important tip of the year had come from someone else:”Finally pull the backhand through”, Papa Robert is said to have advised his son against Rafael Nadal. Bingo!
Let’s look further: Stan Wawrinka recently had to swallow the bitter pill that Magnus Norman no longer wants to travel, and US Open finalist Kevin Anderson parted with coach Neville Godwin, who was elected “Coach of the Year” shortly afterwards – both are still looking for successors. Like Marin Cilic after the separation of Jonas Björkmann, Tomas Berdych after the separation of Goran Ivanisevic and Milos Raonic after the separation of Riccardo Piatti. And Nick Kyrgios…. well, he had already emphasized in the summer that Sebastien Grosjean was a really nice guy, but he didn’t know much about the concept of having a coach anyway. So the Australian tries to do it again on his own.
With Alexander Zverev everything still seems to be fine with Mom and Dad, as well as with Juan Carlos Ferrero. And of course Dominic Thiem remains true to Günter Bresnik, who himself made a pretty quick argument about changing coaches:”I know Dominic, he knows me. That’s not the case with a new coach.” That’s right!
Speaking of which, almost everyone knows everybody in the women’s trainer section, most recently there has been a wild change like almost every year. It was almost thought that Caroline Wozniacki, as world champion and new number three in the world, was finally connected with Sascha Bajin for a longer period of time – but no! Was Papa Piotr the reason again?
For Bajin, Serena Williams’ long-time hitting partner, at least not a broken leg: He now takes on Naomi Osaka, one of the most exciting and fun-loving people in tennis – could be fun! Osaka’s ex-coach, the Australian David Taylor, has also been given an exciting task, he will supervise Yelena Ostapenko and in case of doubt he will even try to explain the term “Plan B” to her. Good luck already at this point!
Karolina Pliskova had already caused the biggest scandal in October with the Tomas Krupa trainer stealing from Barbora Strycova, who subsequently announced her friendship – and now simply engaged Pliskova’s ex-David Kotyza. Could’ve been any easier with them, couldn’t they?
By the way: Angie Kerber hired Wim Fissette, who had even led Sabine Lisicki to the Wimbledon final and was fired shortly after because of different views about a good workout. Johanna Contacts, the former Fissette player has caught Michael Joyce, the former Sharapova and Azarenka coach. Oh, and Torben Beltz, the successful ex-kerber coach? Just took care of Donna Vekic. Julia Görges, on the other hand, remains true to Michael Geserer after her successful year – would be a miracle if not.
Kristina Mladenovic is another such case: at the beginning of the year, the French woman was extremely proud to be her own best coach. After an injury in the summer and twelve defeats at the end of the year, nothing seems to have changed – keep your fingers crossed for a good start into the new year. And who knows: Maybe Günter Bresnik whispers a few tips to you every now and then when Mladenovic comes to her boyfriend Dominic Thiem. Apparently they already know each other.