ATP and WTA have both instituted the Coach of the Year award and in the piece below we look at everything’s that is there to know about these awards.
The women’s and men’s tennis circuit has annual awards which recognises and rewards players, teams and coaches in various categories each year. One of the more recent awards is the Coach of the Year and we look in-depth into it in this piece.
The ATP Coach of the Year was introduced in 2016 while the same was brought into the women’s circuit from 2018. Sweden’s Magnus Norman was the recipient of the first ever such award on the ATP circuit in 2016, for having helped Stan Wawrinka win the US Open title along with four other titles.
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Some of the other winners include Neville Godwin of South Africa for his 2017 effort with Kevin Anderson, Marian Vajda who coached Serbia’s Novak Djokovic in 2018 and Gilles Cervara for his role with Daniil Medvedev in 2019.
To give an instance of how Cervara won his award in 2019. He was responsible in helping Medvedev 59 victories on the tour, and a whopping nine finals. He also guided the Russian to number four on the ATP rankings, and helped him win a runnerup trophy at the US Open.
ATP Coach of the Year
- 2019: Gilles Cervara (for Daniil Medvedev)
- 2018: Marian Vajda (for Novak Djokovic)
- 2017: Neville Godwin (for Kevin Anderson)
- 2016: Magnus Norman (for Stan Wawrinka)
The men’s circuit have also instituted a second, Tim Gullikson Career Coach Award which is given every two years to a long-time coach who has helped the growth of players and coaches in tennis. This was brought in 2019, with Australia’s Tony Roche being the first such recipient.
On the women’s side of the things, the coach awards started a couple of years later with Naomi Osaka’s then-coach Sascha Bajin becoming the first recipient of this award in 2018. Aussie Craig Tyzzer, who helped Ash Barty win her first Grand Slam and clinch the number one spot won it in 2019.
WTA Coach of the Year
- 2019: Craig Tyzzer (for Ash Barty)
- 2018: Sascha Baijin (for Naomi Osaka)
We will update the list of winners of this award each year above.