Thanasi Kokkinakis has ended his collaboration with his lifetime coach Todd Langman after working together for 12 years.
The world No.80 has worked with Langman since he was 8-years-old. Langman also coached Kokkinakis’ brother Pan, for two years prior to the lengthy collaboration. The partnership has resulted in the Australian becoming one of the most promising young players on the ATP Tour. After a successful performance on the junior tour where he was the runner-up at two Grand Slam events in 2013 (Australian Open and the US Open). The 19-year-old has won two Challenger titles since 2014 and reached the third round of the French Open earlier this year. In June this year he achieved a career ranking high of 69th in the world.
According to Langman, the decision to separate was made less than two weeks ago. Despite being disappointed, he has wished his former student all the best for the future.
“I guess it just ran its course, and Thanasi just feels like he needs a new voice, so we just decided probably a week or a week and a half ago to just go our separate ways,” Langman said.
“I still want him to win slams, but I just won’t be there, so it was disappointing, but I wish him all the best. He’s got a bright future and he’s moving on to a great coach, so I’m sure they’ll do well”.
Kokkinakis will now start working with Ben Mathias. Mathias was a former player who achieved a career ranking high of 780th in the world before quitting to become a coach. This year the 35-year-old was awarded the Coaching Excellence – High Performance award by Tennis Australia in recognition of his work with Sam Groth. Groth achieved a career ranking high of 53rd in the world this season and has won two Challenger titles whilst being coached by Mathias.
The young Australian will also be supported by new Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt as well as another coach Jason Stoltenberg. It was confirmed yesterday that Stoltenberg and Hewitt will spend 15 weeks travelling the tour next year to work with Australia’s established and emerging players.
