Juan Martin del Potro
Former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro has seen it all – successes, failures, near career-ending injury, and lived to tell the tale. The tall Argentine has speed, serve, placement and tactics, all aspects that have seen him race to success at Olympics and Majors.
After a long layoff, Del Potro came back last year to progress to the finals of the Rio 2016 games, going down only to an absolutely dominant Andy Murray. The Tower of Tandil, having experienced the best and worst parts of the sport, would be excellent even in terms of advising a young player going through his/her own career on how best to handle those ups and downs.
That said, he could impart his immense skill – although we wonder if that wristy forehand could ever be taught.
Incredibly importantly, Del Potro could teach a charge both fitness and perseverance. He is also known to be very mild-mannered, and would likely not be a harsh coach, but a physically exacting one given the standards he has meticulously placed upon himself.
For this, we think Del Potro would be a great coach in future.
BONUS: Nick Kyrgios
He’s considered incredibly skilled, but also incredibly problematic. Nick Kyrgios, still in his early 20s, has already appeared to become burned out, disillusioned, but despite this – and no coach – the talented youngster managed to win the ATP500 Japan Open title last year.
Kyrgios has also been described as immensely talented by the best in the sport – Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray, who have all reiterated the importance of Kyrgios not wasting his talent.
Should he take a long, and perhaps well-needed break from the sport, Kyrgios, who no doubt has the weapons in his arsenal, could guide and mould another player to avoid those same pitfalls.
Considering his age, however, we’ll give this just under a couple of decades, perhaps.
