The ATP announces the candidates for the Coaches of the Year Award - UBITENNIS

The ATP announces the candidates for the Coaches of the Year Award

By sampaolo
3 Min Read

The ATP nominated five ATP candidates for the Coach of the Year Award: Xavier Malisse (coach of Alexei Popyrin), Emmanuel Planque (Giovanni Mpetchi Perricard), Michael Russell (Taylor Fritz), Brad Stine (Tommy Paul) and James Trotman (Jack Draper). The nominees are voted by fellow coaches. 

Top 20 player Xavier Malisse has helped Alexei Popyrin reach the top 25 for the first time as part of Popyrin’s coaching team alongside Neville Godwin former. Popyrin won the biggest title of his career with a win over Andrey Rublev at the Masters 1000 tournament in Montreal. 

Xavier Malisse: “Neville and I worked a lot on the backhand. We have been working on more variety, slicing a little bit, and then working with the serve”. 

Emmanuel Planque guided Giovanni Mpetchi Perricard to his first two ATP titles in Lyon and Basel. Mpetchi Perricard has become the first French player to win the Basel title since Yannik Noah in 1987. The French player broke into the top 30 of the ATP Ranking for the first time in his career. 

Emmanuel Planque: “Giovanni had an excellent 2024 season, managing to improve his way of playing way after week. He is starting to become familiar with high-level matches. The end of the season sent us this message by winning in Basel. However, we are aware that we are still have a lot of work to do to be among the best players one day”. 

Michael Russell helped Taylor Fritz reach the first ATP Finals title at the US Open and the championships match at the Nitto ATP Finals. Fritz scored a record of 17 wins to just 4 defeats in Grand Slam matches in 2024. Fritz has finished a career-high of number 4. 

Michael Russell: “I think there is more impact in all parts of his game to continuing to be physically stronger and stronger and more explosive on and off the court, to be more comfortable finishing points at the net as well as having more confidence in pressure situations”. 

Brad Stine guided Tommy Paul to three ATP titles in Dallas, Queen’s and Stockolm. Before this season Paul had won just one title in his career in Stockolm in 2021. 

James Trotman helped Jack Draper win two ATP Tour titles in Stuttgart and Vienna. Draper reached his first Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open. Draper has finished the 2024 season at a career-high of world number 15 in the ATP Ranking. 

James Trotman: “I think the biggest area I helped Jack with his tennis this season was to play more aggressively, especially in the bigger moments in matches. A mentality in those situations to play to win”. 

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