Apostolos Tsitsipas, Carlos Moya, Gilles Cervara, Nicolas Massu and Vincenzo Santopadre are the candidates for the ATP Coach of the Year Award. The five coaches have been nominated and voted by fellow ATP coach members. This award goes to the ATP Coach who helped guide his players to a higher level of performance during the year.
Apostolos Tsitsipas guided his son Stefanos to the ATP Finals title in London just one year after his triumph at the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan. Apostolos and his wife Julia Salnikova (a former top 200 WTA player) started coaching Stefanos when he was just three. During a spectacular 2019 season Tsitsipas also won two more titles in Marseille and Estoril and reached the Australian Open semifinal and three finals in Dubai, Madrid and Beijing.
Carlos Moya guided Rafael Nadal to two Grand Slam titles in 2019 at Roland Garros and at the US Open and two Masters 1000 titles in Rome and Montreal. Nadal ended the season as world number 1 player in the ATP Ranking and clinched the Davis Cup title at the Caja Magica in front of his home fans. Nadal has won five Grand Slam titles since he started working together with Moya in 2016.
Frenchman Gilles Cervara played a vital role in Danil Medvedev’s rise to the top five during a spectacular 2019 season. Medvedev won two Masters 1000 finals in Cincinnati and Shanghai, two ATP tournaments in Sofia and St. Petersburg and reached the final in Brisbane, Barcelona, Washington, Montreal and at the US Open,. The 23-year-old Russian player qualified for the ATP Finals in London for the first time in his career.
Former Chilean star Nicolas Massu started working with Dominic Thiem at the start of March. Under the guidance of Massu Thiem won his first Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells. The Austrian player continued his successful season winning in Barcelona, Kitzbuehl, Beijing and Vienna and reached the French Open final.
Vincenzo Santopadre, who reached a career-high world number 100 on 3 May 1999, has coached Matteo Berrettini since 2011 and guided the 23-year-old player to his first Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open last September. Under the guidance of Santopadre Berrettini has become the third Italian player in history to qualify for the ATP Finals after Adriano Panatta and Corrado Barazzutti.
