DURING HER FINAL months as an expert tennis participant, Sandra Zaniewska did not know what her subsequent chapter can be following retirement, however she knew one factor for certain: She needed nothing to do with tennis.
For a lot of her taking part in profession, folks had requested her if she was excited by teaching, however she at all times stated merely, “No probability.” It did not curiosity her, and the thought of experiencing the globetrotting drudge of the tour for another person’s profession sounded torturous.
However when her profession got here to an finish in 2017 on the age of 25, she was requested by her good friend Petra Martic if she might quickly assist her as she returned to the tour following an harm. Zaniewska did not have another plans, or a lot cash, so she figured she would assist for a couple of weeks earlier than formally shifting on from tennis. However earlier than lengthy, weeks was months, and months was years, and Martic rose from a rating simply inside the highest 100 to No. 14 on the planet.
And Zaniewska, the as soon as reluctant, anything-but-tennis coach, was hooked. She knew she had discovered her true calling.
“I cherished it, and I keep in mind considering, ‘Wow, I used to be meant to do that job,'” Zaniewska advised ESPN. “From that second on, I simply stayed and I did not even wish to discover anything, to be trustworthy. Nevertheless it actually hit me after [Petra and I] stopped working collectively about two years later as a result of then I used to be in a position to look again on the time and I used to be like, ‘This actually was the most effective journey that I had in my whole life.”
Since then, Zaniewska has gone on to work with Alize Cornet, and he or she’s been teaching Marta Kostyuk, at present ranked No. 25, since 2023. However Zaniewska is aware of her journey is exclusive — “one in a billion,” she speculates — and he or she stays one among a handful of girls teaching on the elite stage within the sport. Whereas teaching modifications are frequent in tennis and it’s typically troublesome to establish probably the most present teaching partnerships, it’s believed there are simply 12 gamers out of 128 within the girls’s essential draw on the 2025 French Open who’ve a head coach that could be a girl. Mirra Andreeva, who misplaced within the quarterfinals and is coached by Conchita Martinez, was the final participant remaining to have one. There aren’t any gamers within the males’s essential draw with a girl head coach.
In a sport like tennis, which prides itself on equality and for its trailblazing historical past, it is exhausting to consider there’s such disparity among the many teaching ranks. How might there be so few girls’s coaches, particularly amongst girls gamers? It is a obvious discrepancy that has not gone unnoticed by these concerned within the sport — and one thing that coaches like Zaniewska, along with the WTA, USTA and Tennis Australia are actively working to alter.
“I really feel like I used to be actually, actually fortunate within the path that I had,” Zaniewska stated. “I actually simply need extra females to get these alternatives as a result of there could be extra tales just like the one which I had. I do know there are different coaches on the market who’re desperate to study and excellent at what they do, they’re simply not getting the possibilities to do it. I am right here [in this position] now and I wish to maintain the door open and let as many ladies by as doable.”
THERE ISN’T ONE simple reply as to why there stay so few girls coaches on tour.
However there are a number of possible components, lots of that are deeply rooted within the sport, its tradition and society at massive. Nicole Pratt, a former-player-turned-coach and the ladies’s coach lead at Tennis Australia, spent years trying into the intricacies of the topic whereas growing the federation’s Coach Join program to assist recruit and develop girls coaches.
“It is fairly deep,” Pratt, who at present coaches each Storm Hunter and Kimberly Birrell on tour, advised ESPN. “The complexity of ‘Why?’ is multidimensional with 4 completely different layers to it.”
Pratt believes it usually begins with the person coach and their very own self-belief or insecurity. However that is a small a part of the puzzle. From there, it goes to what she defines because the “interpersonal and organizational layers,” and that is the place issues like gender bias continuously come into play.
“We all know that most individuals in sport are male, and that may usually inadvertently create limitations for ladies coaches,” Pratt stated. “I hear this on a regular basis from girls coaches. They’re usually advised, ‘You will work nicely with youthful ladies,’ and they’re pigeonholed into that.”
Pratt defined the following layer was a deeply ingrained “social cultural one,” and stated many younger ladies are usually not raised to be courageous or take dangers in the identical method younger boys are. That may later translate to girls not asking for alternatives — not wanting to look aggressive or too ahead — or not believing they’re succesful.
Moreover, she stated, for some girls who wish to have a household, or already do, the thought of touring the world 11 months out of the yr generally is a daunting one. In some circumstances, it would merely be unimaginable together with parental duties. Whereas the WTA introduced a brand new maternity go away program earlier this spring, coaches are usually not eligible. They’re basically workers of particular person gamers and often lack many advantages.
However the disparity additionally comes right down to what many gamers on tour take into account a vital piece of their workforce: A hitting companion.
Whereas the highest gamers are in a position to journey with an in depth workforce that usually features a head coach and a hitting companion, the typical participant on tour can’t at all times afford to have each on the highway. Consequently, many gamers search for coaches that may additionally fill that position. Pratt, who retired as a participant in 2008, famous that lots of her friends throughout her time on tour employed “younger, inexperienced male coaches” solely as a result of they might hit and that is what the participant might afford.
“In the previous few years, the pay has gone up and now many gamers can afford to have a number of folks on their workforce so it’s altering,” Pratt stated. “However there nonetheless is this concept for some gamers of, ‘How can I get probably the most worth for my cash?’ versus, ‘Who can I get that is a very good coach?'”
Whereas there isn’t a formal file or record of hitting companions, WTA Director of Member Companies Mike Anders advised ESPN he wasn’t conscious of any girls at present in that position on tour. Very like WNBA and girls’s faculty basketball groups have male apply gamers, most girls want to apply with males, if not their tour-level friends. (The prevailing logic is that if a girl have been ok to hit with the tour’s finest gamers, she can be on tour.)
And being a hitting companion generally is a steppingstone for aspiring coaches. It is a clear path into the game for many who performed collegiately or on the decrease skilled ranges — and might usually result in extra. Sascha Bajin, Michael Joyce and Andrew Bettles, every a present head coach of a participant in the principle draw at Roland Garros, additionally started within the skilled ranks as hitting companions.
“There are a variety of male coaches on the tour that begin off as hitting companions, after which they type of flip into coaches after some time, however they at all times can hit when wanted,” Zaniewska stated. “And I feel gamers may view feminine coaches that may’t hit with them, like, ‘Okay, is she actually in a position to assist me? What if I want somebody to hit with me at a match?'”
And easily being across the tour — a comparatively small, insular neighborhood — provides these hitting companions an edge in creating connections after which getting future alternatives to educate or be a part of one other workforce. Anders known as it a “massive roadblock” for ladies coaches trying to break into teaching on the high stage.
WHILE CELEBRATING THE fiftieth anniversary of the formation of the WTA at Wimbledon in 2023, Billie Jean King turned her famed advocacy towards the dearth of girls coaches within the sport. That yr, there have been simply six gamers within the occasion’s essential draw working with a feminine coach.
“Horrible. Extraordinarily disappointing,” King advised The Related Press in an interview that garnered important consideration on the time. “It is about society, completely. It’s a must to see it to be it. So in the event you do not see a girl up there as a coach, it would not even cross your mind. How will we get the highest gamers to rent them? We have to unravel the issue.”
However the WTA was already keenly conscious of the difficulty. Not solely was it obvious within the lack of girls in participant packing containers, former gamers routinely would complain about how exhausting it was to interrupt into teaching regardless of their very own spectacular resumes. And it turned crystal clear when the WTA began a training program in 2017, primarily to make sure coaches have been certified and met sure standards, and the group was in a position to see the uncooked numbers for themselves.
Seeking to deal with the issue head-on, the WTA launched the Coach Inclusion program in 2021, an formidable initiative geared in direction of rising the variety of girls coaches. On the time there have been simply 4 girls coaches working with gamers within the high 200.
“The intent across the program was actually to take away that barrier of entry that we have been seeing,” Anders, who runs this system, advised ESPN. “Tennis is a reasonably small world and this system basically combines focused coach schooling, with the real-life expertise of them really being positioned within the setting, in addition to fostering mentorships and making connections.”
Throughout its first yr, this system labored with 10 up-and-coming coaches in North America. Since then, 34 girls have efficiently accomplished this system, and it has expanded to the Asia-Pacific area, in addition to South America and the UK, with hopes of increasing to the remainder of Europe and the Center East within the coming years. There are spots for a complete of 20 girls throughout the entire areas this yr.
The ATP has a training program however confirmed to ESPN it doesn’t have something particularly centered on rising the variety of girls coaches. Girls teaching males’s tennis gamers stays uncommon, though Pratt beforehand coached Marc Polmans and Amelie Mauresmo, now the French Open match director, labored with Andy Murray for almost two years, and later with Lucas Pouille.
The WTA program takes coaches to tournaments of their respective area and makes an attempt to immerse them within the full teaching expertise, working with gamers and their groups, studying the ins-and-outs of match logistics and assembly as many individuals as doable.
Coaches like Zaniewska and Pratt are sometimes concerned and permit these in this system to shadow them when doable. As a result of each match on tour is completely different — and what may sound like mundane features like reserving apply courts or scheduling transportation to-and-from website can differ radically from occasion to occasion — getting an opportunity to study from a seasoned coach, or simply understanding who to ask sooner or later, could make all of the distinction.
“We had one participant in this system who was teaching a high 100 participant for a bit earlier than she even entered this system and he or she stated she had felt so uncomfortable and misplaced as a result of she did not know who to go to when her participant needed her to rearrange practices with different coaches or requested her questions on media necessities,” Anders stated. “Her participant anticipated her to know all of that and handle it. However by simply getting the expertise over the course of a yr, she bought employed instantly after finishing this system after which simply knew so many individuals who might assist her and it made her really feel like she now belonged.”
On the Italian Open final month, the latest occasion wherein the WTA has confirmed information, there have been 169 accredited coaches between the principle draw and qualifying, and 26 of them (simply over 15%) have been girls. Within the WTA’s Tour Coach program — the one launched in 2017 that options some, however not all, of the present coaches — 24 of the 125 registered coaches (simply over 19%) are girls. Whereas nonetheless removed from equal, Anders is inspired by the progress.
This system additionally boasts quite a few success tales. Anders believes 5 girls who’ve come by this system have gone on to be their house nation’s Billie Jean King Cup captain and others have gone to turn out to be coaches on the WTA Tour, together with Fanni Varga, who was simply named Danielle Collins’ coach forward of Indian Wells in March. Varga, a former junior participant from Hungary who performed at Division II Southwest Baptist College, had by no means thought of a training profession. With plans on pursuing one thing in finance after incomes her Masters, one summer time internship spent completely in entrance of a pc and several other conversations along with her faculty coach made her change her thoughts.
When John Bryant retired after 51 years, Varga was tapped to be the pinnacle coach for each the boys’s and girls’s groups at Southwest Baptist. In her 4 years within the position, she led the boys’s workforce to an NCAA match Elite 8 look and the ladies’s workforce to a program-high rating of No. 7. Varga fell in love with teaching — and knew she might do much more and proceed to enhance.
She was inspired by these closest to her to use for the Coach Inclusion program. Varga was excited to make extra connections but in addition felt strongly in regards to the want for extra girls coaches within the sport.
“It was essential to me as a result of I had a really dangerous expertise,” Varga shared with ESPN. “I had an excellent feminine coach till I used to be 14, and an amazing expertise along with her, after which I sadly had actually dangerous male coaches the remainder of my junior years. They did not hearken to me once I was injured and advised me to cease complaining and overpushed me. So having this initiative to assist turn out to be a greater coach for different ladies, youthful ladies who’re attempting to turn out to be skilled, was an enormous inspiration for me.”
Varga, 32, wasn’t certain if she needed to educate on the skilled stage, however being across the tour as a part of this system was a “nice eye-opener” for her. She realized it labored nicely along with her “tremendous aggressive” nature and need to assist gamers be the most effective they could possibly be. She estimates she was in a position to converse to over 20 coaches throughout her time in this system, and it solely additional fueled her need and fervour.
“We had the most effective time,” Varga stated. “We shared a variety of experiences, related targets, related experiences. On the tournaments we’d meet up at dinner, share what we discovered, what we noticed, what we skilled, and that multiplies the information you get in a single week. Everybody was there with the identical targets, and truthfully I miss these weeks a bit bit.”
Varga, who is predicated in Los Angeles, met up with Collins for the primary time the week earlier than Indian Wells started in March. After a robust apply week collectively, and regardless of an early exit within the match, Collins requested Varga if she would proceed working along with her. Varga is at present planning on remaining full time with Collins by Wimbledon in July earlier than resuming her duties on the Tier 1 tennis academy. She hopes to hitch Collins for a part of the North American hard-court swing in some capability, nonetheless.
Throughout one among Varga’s first apply periods with Collins, the 2 practiced alongside Robin Montgomery and her coach Kathy Rinaldi. For Varga it was a full-circle second: Rinaldi was one of many coaches she had an opportunity to talk to throughout this system — and the one who had maybe impressed her probably the most. Rinaldi’s main job is the pinnacle of girls’s tennis on the USTA and the USTA is likely one of the federations closely concerned with the Coach Inclusion program.
Along with persevering with that partnership, the USTA says it’s equally dedicated to creating teaching extra inclusive, beginning on the grassroots stage. It’s launching its personal teaching program later this summer time with a concentrate on rising the variety of girls and other people of shade within the position. Megan Rose, the USTA’s Managing Director and Head of Enterprise Growth and Operations and a former participant and coach, is in control of the brand new initiative and believes it’s going to make the game higher and additional develop the sport in the US.
“Having numerous illustration [of coaches],” Rose advised ESPN, “Not simply of girls, however folks of shade and people who have a incapacity, actually having the ability to have an acceptable illustration of the participant base that we wish to additionally develop to get to 35 million. It isn’t nearly visibility, but it surely’s about validation. For younger ladies to see coaches in these examples lets them know that there’s a pathway for them, and for ladies, faculty tennis gamers, displaying them that there’s a pathway not only for teaching, but in addition management inside tennis on the whole and inside completely different organizations which can be in sport.”
Rose stated the group has tried to establish what obstacles forestall or sluggish the rise of girls in teaching, in hopes of particularly serving to in these areas. She stated motherhood was a transparent barrier, citing the period of time and journey required within the job on the larger ranges, and the necessity to develop artistic options.
“We have been considering quite a bit about how we are able to work with amenities on creating the appropriate construction that helps mothers coming again,” Rose stated.
That is a wrestle these at present on tour face recurrently. Pratt has 10-year-old twin daughters again house in Australia. Being so distant for weeks, and typically months, at a time will be difficult.
“It may be lonely for certain,” Pratt stated. “Particularly whenever you’re on the other aspect of the world, away from your loved ones. I attempted to set a little bit of a rule for myself that I would not be away for greater than three weeks on tour, however clearly that will get stretched.”
A camaraderie exists among the many girls coaches on tour. There is a group chat used to share sources, ask questions, arrange practices between gamers, and even brainstorm concepts. Typically mentioned among the many girls is how one can deal with the hitting companion inequity. Pratt stated she and Martinez have been discussing it at a latest clay match in Europe.
“I stated to Conchi, ‘You recognize what would make an actual distinction for feminine coaches? If the match offered hitting companions particularly allotted to us,'” Pratt stated of the dialog. “There aren’t many people at this level, so if we had that choice, the gamers would really have a look at [hiring a woman] in another way doubtlessly. There are nonetheless limitations, however there are answers too.”
For now, the variety of girls coaches stays low, however it’s slowly rising. Some youthful gamers, together with 18-year-old Victoria Mboko, who made it by qualifying to the third spherical at Roland Garros, see a good thing about working with a girl as a coach.
“After all, having a feminine there, you relate much more,” Mboko, who’s coached by former world No. 3 Nathalie Tauziat, stated final week. “I imply, they know extra [about] the ladies’s recreation. They know the struggles {that a} girl can undergo on tour. In that facet it could possibly be a bit bit simpler to attempt to perceive some issues {that a} man can’t.”
However there’s nonetheless an additional burden on those that have the job, understanding they usually signify extra than simply themselves. However there’s a sturdy need to open doorways for others and make the trail a bit simpler for the following era.
Whereas chatting with ESPN, Zaniewska was advised of the coach Anders talked about who was intimidated by the logistics of life on tour. She vowed to textual content Anders and provide her assist if different girls coaches had related questions.
“As a result of you don’t need these issues to derail you in a method,” she stated. “One thing like this could shatter your confidence and bury you. I’ve no management over what number of feminine coaches are on tour or what number of feminine coaches there shall be. I can solely do my small half on this. We have now to assist one another.”
