Coaches of Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek, Elina Svitolina, Elena Rybakina, Aryna Sabalenka and Karolina Muchova nominated for WTA Coach of the Year
WTA
With the 2023 WTA season having come to an end, the nominees for the coach of the year have been made public, with several familiar faces making the cut.
The 2023 WTA season saw several success stories play out, with a different athlete capturing each of the four Grand Slam titles. Furthermore, there were a handful of comeback players on tour, with Ukrainian Elina Svitolina taking the tour by storm after giving birth to her first child.
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Coaches of Grand Slam winners dominate the list
Brad Gilbert and Pere Riba received a nomination for guiding Coco Gauff to not just her maiden WTA 1000 title, but also her first Major when she captured the 2023 US Open trophy. Furthermore, Gauff won 20 of 23 matches, including 12 straight and, in succession, a WTA 500 (Citi Open) WTA 1000 (Western & Southern Open) and a Grand Slam (US Open). The American began the year ranked at World No.7 and finished at a career-high of World No.3.
Tomasz Wiktorowski, coach of Iga Swiatek also received a nomination. The Polish coach helped his compatriot start and end the year at World No.1, in addition to winning her fourth Grand Slam title when she lifted the 2023 Roland Garros trophy. Additionally, Swiatek led the WTA Tour this season in titles won (6) and matches won (68).
Anton Dubrov helped Aryna Sabalenka finish the year as World No.2, after starting as the World No.5. Sabalenka won her maiden Grand Slam title at the 2023 Australian Open, and became the first woman to reach the semifinals or better at all four Grand Slam events in a calendar year since Serena Williams in 2016.
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Emil Miske, coach of Karolina Muchova, guided the Czech star's ascent up the rankings, as Muchova began the year at World No.151 but finish as World No.8. Muchova Muchova reached two finals this year, at the WTA 1000 Western & Southern Open and her first Grand Slam final, at Roland Garros. Additionally, she reached the US Open semifinals and qualified the the year-ending WTA Finals but had to withdraw due to injury.
Stefano Vukov coached Elena Rybakina to a career-high of World No.4, after starting the year at World No.21. The Kazakh player won 27 matches at WTA 1000 events this season, in addition to winning the first two WTA 1000 events of her career, at Indian Wells and Rome.
Raemon Sluiter assisted Elena Svitolina on her comeback after motherhood, with the Ukrainian starting her shortened season at World No.240 but ending 2023 as the 25th ranked player. Svitolina returned to the Tour in April 2023 after giving birth to her daughter, before winning her 17th career WTA title at Strasbourg and reaching the quarterfinals at Roland Garros and semifinals at Wimbledon.
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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