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Brad Gilbert has a theory as to why so many top players are splitting from their coaches ahead of the North American hard court swing.
In the space of a matter of days at Wimbledon, top 10 players Felix Auger-Aliassime and former US Open champion Daniil Medvedev split from their respective coaches.
The former ended a near 10-year partnership with Frederic Fontang, while the latter parted ways with one of his coaches, Thomas Johansson, after nearly 12 months together.
At the same time, world No 11 Jiri Lehecka, who is at a career-high ranking, and coach Michal Navratil went their separate ways after eight years together.
While all three are in different stages of their careers, they all want one thing: to win a Grand Slam. And according to Andre Agassi’s former coach, Gilbert, there is a reason for all this recent movement.
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The American believes that Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are a long way ahead of the rest of the men’s tour but that can not be said with Aryna Sabalenka – who is slamless this year – and the women’s tour.
He said on the Tennis Channel, “Right now there is a massive difference in women’s 1-20 and men’s 1-20. I feel like that’s why we have seven different winners in the last seven majors.
“In the men’s, the guys at the top have massively separated, and I think that is what is forcing decisions on players who go, ‘I need to add something asap or I am going to go further back’.”
Indeed, in the men’s game, Sinner has 13,450 points, French Open champion Alexander Zverev is second on 8,480 and Alcaraz, who has been out injured since mid-April, is third on 8,160.
On the WTA Tour, Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina are on 8,550 and 8,056 points apiece, with third-placed Jessica Pegula not too far behind on 6,300. Moreover, Sinner is more than 11,000 points ahead of 20th-ranked Francisco Cerundolo, whereas Sabalenka is around 6,500 points in front of world No 20 Anna Kalinskaya.
World No 7 Medvedev did beat Alcaraz in Indian Wells this year and he ran Sinner close at the same tournament. Auger-Aliassime sits fourth in the rankings and is consistently reaching the second week of majors, while Lehecka is just outside the top 10.
But it still seems there is a long way to go before they start really challenging for Grand Slams; plus, their consistency needs work. However, the fact that they are making these coaching changes suggests they are not resting on their laurels.
Gilbert – who also coached Coco Gauff and Andy Roddick to Grand Slam success – added, “I’ve heard this so much in coaching. Why does a top player need a coach?
“And I am like, because they obviously want to get better. If you don’t have a coach, you are not thinking that you can get better.”
In late June, former world No 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas split from his father Apostolos after years of working on and off together.
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