The Tennis Coaching Merry Go Round

[Suliso]

Long term career? She likely retires in 2-3 years max and likely already on the downslope.

[JTContinental]

You think she will retire at 31 to 32? Unless she's planning on starting a family, I think she will play longer. When healthy, she's still a top 10 player, even in her downslope.

[Suliso]

You think she will retire at 31 to 32? Unless she's planning on starting a family, I think she will play longer. When healthy, she's still a top 10 player, even in her downslope.

Well, she just got married... Maybe she'll be one of the rare exceptions, but currently there are only 2 players older than 32 in the top 50 (Serena and Kerber) and six more in the 50-100 range (Zvonareva, Petkovic, Hsieh, Kuznetsova, Kanepi and Siegemund). Doubt she'll want to play on when even top 50 a struggle.

[ti-amie]

In case you didn't hear about it during one of her matches, Paula Badosa split with her coach Javier Martí. It appears it occurred right before the Canadian Open. Not clear on whose decision it was to split.

I think her new squeeze is her new coach...

Badosa’s boyfriend is a Cuban model.

Jazz you must be thinking about her physio. This is the new boyfriend/coach.

[ti-amie]

Truly, the most codependent coaching relationship in tennis, so it will be interesting to see how this works out for her, especially since Cahill does everything but stand behind her on the court and move her from side to side during the slams. Short term, I think this will be a disaster, but a good move for her long term career (and probably personal life too).

I agree and because of this I don't see her playing much longer. She can't think without him there.

[JazzNU]

Jazz you must be thinking about her physio. This is the new boyfriend/coach.

That's not her coach, but the boyfriend who is a model, not involved with tennis. Her "new" coach is her old coach from when she was in juniors.

Old coach - https://www.instagram.com/javiermarti/

New coach - https://twitter.com/DKTNNS/status/1439947405135319042 (click on the tweet within and you'll see a photo of them)

Current boyfriend - https://www.instagram.com/p/CS4Xb8KjOwf/

[ponchi101]

And...
Raducanu breaks up with her coach. She needs somebody that "has the WTA experience" as she will now go against "tougher players" (take that, Belinda Bencic and Maria Sakkari).
I wonder if there is a good coach, with lots of experience in the WTA and that has worked with, for example, somebody of Romanian ascent and taken such player to the top echelons of the tour.
Nah, nobody.

[ti-amie]

And...
Raducanu breaks up with her coach. She needs somebody that "has the WTA experience" as she will now go against "tougher players" (take that, Belinda Bencic and Maria Sakkari).
I wonder if there is a good coach, with lots of experience in the WTA and that has worked with, for example, somebody of Romanian ascent and taken such player to the top echelons of the tour.
Nah, nobody.

This young woman has had four coaches in this one year. I think that certain someone would be wise to stay away from what appears to be an unstable situation.

[JazzNU]

Hmm. Ink on the check is barely dry...

[ponchi101]

...

This young woman has had four coaches in this one year. I think that certain someone would be wise to stay away from what appears to be an unstable situation.

I did not know that. My question is, as always: why change a winning formula? Maybe her coach "does not know" the WTA, but he has done well, so far.
Parents meddling, perhaps?

[ti-amie]

...

This young woman has had four coaches in this one year. I think that certain someone would be wise to stay away from what appears to be an unstable situation.

I did not know that. My question is, as always: why change a winning formula? Maybe her coach "does not know" the WTA, but he has done well, so far.
Parents meddling, perhaps?

I just read that a comm said in passing during the Open that one coach wouldn't return if her father kept attending her training sessions.

Also, remember how Woz and her father would hire a top notch coach, milk him dry, and then kick him to the curb? Makes you wonder.

[ponchi101]

I had forgotten about Caro's situation, but after you mentioned it, indeed. And I will always believe that Piotr cost Caro one more slam.
I also had not heard about the training session issue. I was half joking about Cahill jumping into this ship but, if daddy wants to run the show, I doubt he would like that sort of deal.

[JTContinental]

And...
Raducanu breaks up with her coach. She needs somebody that "has the WTA experience" as she will now go against "tougher players" (take that, Belinda Bencic and Maria Sakkari).
I wonder if there is a good coach, with lots of experience in the WTA and that has worked with, for example, somebody of Romanian ascent and taken such player to the top echelons of the tour.
Nah, nobody.

I wonder who that could be?

[JazzNU]

She's said that she has no one in mind and isn't in a rush to appoint a new coach. We'll see very soon if that is a lie. Seems strange to do this if someone isn't already lined up, but the father's involvement does make it more of a possibility.

[Deuce]

Personally, I feel that the value of coaches at the pro level is overrated. For many coaches, their main tasks are to reserve the hotel rooms and practice courts, pick up the balls in practice, and say “That’s it”, “Nice”, “Good”, etc. during the practices.
At the pro level, the players all know how to hit a tennis ball quite well. Sure, you may ‘tweak’ a certain shot a little bit, but their strokes are very established - and they obviously work. A coach can come in and want to change too much (maybe because their ego needs to put their ‘stamp’ on the player to be able to say that they’re responsible for any success which may follow) - but changing things can easily end up doing more harm than good.

I think the reason that their value is so high is because the coaches play themselves up as being ‘essential’, and the media, naturally, goes along with it.
The main value of coaches at the pro level is, I believe, psychological - to be a 'sounding board', and to build confidence and belief in the player. And if a parent has a good relationship with the son/daughter, the parent can often build confidence as well - or better - than a coach, because the parent knows their child inside and out.
One could argue, I suppose, that coaches also help with match strategy. But when coaching is not permitted during a match, whatever strategy was suggested is often forgotten in the heat and pressure of battle.

Some are calling for Leylah to hire an experienced, ‘high profile’ coach. I advise against this. She reached the U.S. Open Final with her dad coaching her. Would she have reached the Final, or won it, with an experienced coach? Highly doubtful. I’d say it’s far more likely that she would not have done as well at the U.S. Open had she had an experienced coach. Her father knows her extremely well - knows which buttons to push at the right time, etc.
She and her dad trust each other. They have an extremely strong and unique relationship which no coach on the planet could ever come close to duplicating.

I predict that Halep will miss Cahill very much - because they seemed to have a psychological and emotional bond - and that was the main value of that relationship. It will be very difficult - and maybe impossible - to replace.

As for Emma... much like Leylah, she and her parents are doing things their way. They do it differently than Leylah and her dad, but they’ve been committed to staying their chosen course. And that’s perfectly fine.
Here’s an interesting article on how Emma and her parents have gone about her coaching...

How Emma Raducanu's Parents Put Their Daughter First...

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