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The role and emphasis on coaching in a tennis player's professional career is often not given enough credit. Great players despite having immense talent and skill, do need some sort of mentorship, guidance and tutoring. Novak Djokovic had tried to bring about too many changes to his coaching staff bringing in the likes of Andre Agassi, Radek Stepanek earlier this year.
Later, he realized that wholesale changes like that just don't work and he reunited with his old coach - Marian Vadja. Immediately, the combination of Vadja-Djokovic worked wonders and Djokovic won Wimbledon and US Open and also sealed the year-end #1 ranking.
Novak has publicly voiced that reuniting with Vadja - someone who knows his strengths and weaknesses inside out better than anyone else apart from possibly himself was a gamechanger.
The coaches get paid depending on the performance of the players in tournaments. So, in this regard, they are fully vested in the player's game. If players win Grand Slam tournaments, typically the coaches are paid about a small portion of the prize money.
We take a look at four successful tennis players who transitioned into coaches and achieved considerable success and wealth.
#4 Brad Gilbert
The author of the popular book ‘Winning Ugly’, which must be the most referenced tennis coaching manual of all-time, Brad Gilbert is best known for the work he did with Andre Agassi. Andre Agassi won six of his eight Grand Slams with Gilbert as his coach. Agassi described Gilbert as the greatest coach of all time. Gilbert was coach of Andre Agassi between 1994 to 2002.
Later, Gilbert became the coach of up and coming American tennis star, Andy Roddick. He helped Andy Roddick win his first and only Major at the US Open of 2003 and also played a pivotal role in Roddick's rise to #1 in the World rankings.
Brad was also coach of Andy Murray between 2006 and 2007 during which the Scot became the top-ranked British player. After brief coaching stints with Kei Nishikori and Sam Querrey, Brad took a break from coaching to pursue a full-time role as an analyst with ESPN.
Brad was also a decent tennis player during his playing days having reached a career-high Singles ranking of World #4 in 1990.
#3 Tony Roche
Tony Roche has had the distinction of working with four former World #1 ranked players: Ivan Lendl, Patrick Rafter, Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt.
Legend has it that Lendl hired Roche just so that he can learn how to volley like him. Roche coached Swiss legend Roger Federer from 2005 to 2007. Roche had a significant influence on the grand slam record-holder.
Federer was already world #1 when he began working with Roche but the Australian mentor ensured that he remained there. It is rumored that Roche didn't have a contractual agreement with Federer and accepted payments by the week.
Roche was also a successful tennis player winning the French Open Singles in 1966. Apart from Singles, he also excelled in Doubles and Mixed Doubles winning 13 Grand Slams and two Grand Slams respectively.
#2 Boris Becker
German Boris Becker is a six-time Grand Slam Singles champion and the youngest Wimbledon men’s champion of all-time at just 17 years.
Novak Djokovic hired Becker as his full-time coach in December 2013. In just three years, Becker contributed to six of Djokovic’s 12 grand slam triumphs and 14 of his 32 ATP Masters 1000 titles. In 2016, Djokovic and Becker parted ways by mutual consent. Djokovic completed his Career Slam at the French Open of 2016 under the guidance of Boris Becker and long-time coach Marian Vadja.
Becker presently serves as an analyst for BBC and is regularly seen at the commentary box during Wimbledon giving his views. He was in 2017 appointed as the coach of the German Tennis Federation.
#1 Ivan Lendl
With eight Grand Slam titles, seven Year End Championships and 94 Singles titles, Ivan Lendl was already a legend in tennis annals.
But the taciturn Czech didn't stop there. Post-retirement he took up coaching responsibilities and most notably had two stints as coach of Britain's Andy Murray. Prior to hiring Lendl, Murray had faced a series of setbacks in Grand Slam tournaments falling at the last hurdle to either Federer, Nadal or Djokovic.
Lendl had a huge role in Murray's transitioning to being one of the contenders to actually being a Grand Slam champion. He helped Murray win his first Grand Slam major at the US Open of 2012 following his heartbreaking loss to Federer in the final of Wimbledon the same year.
Following year, he coached Murray to the Wimbledon title helping him achieve a lifelong dream. It was deja vu all over again for Lendl as Murray, just like him triumphed in a Grand Slam final in his 5th attempt. In 2014, the two parted ways only to reunite in 2016. Again their partnership worked wonders as Murray won Wimbledon once again, rose to the top of the ATP rankings for the first time and retained his Olympic Gold Medal at the Rio Olympic Games. In 2017, they again parted ways
Prior to the US Open of 2018, Lendl took over as coach of Alexander Zverev and coached him to his maiden ATP Finals trophy in London.
