David Taylor is one of the most successful tennis coaches – among others he has worked with Martina Hingis, Ana Ivanovic, Alicia Molik, Samantha Stosur and Naomi Osaka. Since this season he has been training Jelena Ostapenko – and sees a lot of potential.
One thing Taylor wants to tackle is Ostapenko’s serve. And he has his exact idea of how to get to work with the French Open winner, he told sydneyinternational. com. au…”I worked with Sam Stosur when she was 24 years old – and worked on the technology from day one. It was all about getting the flat forehand and the topspin swing. A lot of technical stuff at the beginning, then it was tactical stuff,” Molik was similar, especially on the backhand “She played a lot of slice and very flat – at the end of her career she played topspin.”
He learned a lot from the time with Martina Hingis and her mother:”I was lucky to start my coaching career at this level, with the two of them. You strongly believed that any necessary technical change must be addressed immediately.”
Mama Jelena also laid the foundation stones for Yelena Ostapenko. I have tremendous respect for someone like her – she just loves giving training,”says Taylor. It’s nice to be part of it, and I love hearing the many stories about how she brought her daughter upstairs. That’s not easy.”
It was difficult for Ostapenko to make it into the world’s elite so quickly, almost without any intermediate steps. But it’s important to keep improving,”because everyone knows more about her now than before,”the Australian says,”She’s a much bigger issue among coaches and players than she was – due to her achievements in 2017.”
There is no doubt in her mind that Ostapenko belongs here – and this is an unusual characteristic,”she says,” and she is aware of the weaknesses of her opponents. But the important thing, especially in women’s tennis, is to remain calm in stressful situations and use these things to their full advantage “I coached players who were fully aware of the tactics. And 30 seconds before the invasion, they forgot everything because the pressure was there.”