ATP: Kokkianakis tries it with the Agassi fitness coach

Australia’s youngster Thanasi Kokkinakis finally wants to get physically fit and has got herself prominent help.

Thanasi Kokkinakis was regarded as one of the greatest hopes for young talent “Down Under” – but the 22-year-old did not really make it to the top yet. The main reason for this was various injury-related time-outs. 69th place two years ago was the best result so far for the man who celebrated his most spectacular triumph in Miami this year with his victory over Roger Federer.

So that it finally goes permanently toward the top, a man should help: Gil Reyes, ex-fitness coach of Andre Agassi. As adelaidenow.com reports, Kokkinakis and Reyes are at the trial stage of a collaboration. It started off promising: This weekend, Kokkinakis won the Challenger Tournament in Las Vegas, making a jump from 192th to 154th place in the ATP ranking.

Reyes was a fitness coach at the University of Nevada when Agassi sought his help in the late 1980s. He transformed the Las Vegas boy from an unfit into one of the physically strongest players and became a kind of surrogate father for Agassi, who eventually named his son after Reyes (Jaden Gil Agassi).

In his autobiography Open, Agassi raves in high tones about the now 66-year-old who built his own fitness machines, instilled Agassi with a special “Gil Water” before and after the matches and with whom some training sessions consisted exclusively of long and profound conversations.

Reyes now runs the Gil Reyes Fitness Center in Las Vegas and is very busy as a speaker, but also with tennis professionals – in recent years with Fernando Verdasco, Eugenie Bouchard and Simona Halep among others.