Navratilova and Davenport take up Coaching
Agnieszka Radwanska has announced that Martina Navratilova is joining her coaching team. The polish player, currently ranked sixth in the world, has won fourteen career singles titles. Radwanska Tweeted: “So happy to announce @Martina as the newest member of my coaching team!”
Martina Navratilova, arguably the greatest ever female tennis player, was world No. 1 for a total of 332 weeks in singles, and a record 237 weeks in doubles, making her the only player in history to have held the top spot in both singles and doubles for over 200 weeks. The former Czech player won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, 31 major women’s doubles titles (an all-time record), and 10 major mixed doubles titles. She reached the Wimbledon singles final 12 times, including nine consecutive years from 1982 through 1990, and won the women’s singles title at Wimbledon a record nine times, including a run of six consecutive titles, the best performance by any professional player at a major event. Radwanska, A crafty player with fine court sense, has evoked comparisons to Martina Hingis because of her skills at opening the court with angles and diffusing more powerful players with placement and finesse, is the first Polish player in the Open Era to reach the singles final of a Grand Slam (the 2012 Wimbledon Championships). She is also the first Pole to claim a WTA singles title (the 2007 Nordea Nordic Light Open), a year later, she became the first Polish woman to crack the Top 10.
This partnership is not the only high profile ex top player to become the coach of a youngster with Lindsay Davenport, agreeing to work with Madison Keys in the buildup to next season. Davenport, who lives in Los Angeles, has decided to work with Keys for the rest of this year, but because of her television commitments, Davenport might not become Keys’ full-time coach in 2015. Davenport will talk with Keys when she can, but the 19-year-old will eventually hire a full-time coach next year. The hard-hitting American has shown promise over the past two years, but she grew a bit frustrated this season after mixed results. After winning a grass-court tournament in Eastbourne in late June, Keys reached a career-high No. 27, but she was unable to get past any quarterfinals and went 9-9 to close out her season.
Currently ranked No. 31, Keys has worked with USTA coaches Juan Todero and Jay Gooding. Davenport, a former No. 1, consistently served big and developed a strong forehand and backhand. But she also showed patience, an important quality of her success. While Keys is one of the biggest servers and can also attack with her forehand, she can be impatient, something Davenport will surely work on during their time together.