Up-and-coming Ukrainian tennis star Marta Kostyuk doesn't hide her thoughts and feelings.
So when I asked her if there were any specific benefits to having a female coach, she replied: Her voice has a certain tone and pitch. She's making it clear in this moment that she thinks you're an idiot.
“It’s more than that. “I can relate,” she says. A concise and heartfelt explanation.I can see it.”Of course!!!” Appears in a comic word speech bubble above her head.
But then she does what she almost always does. We talk about wars in her home country, and what it's like to wake up in the morning and immediately have to check her phone to see if her family has been killed. How she won or lost a particular point, match, or match. She paused and tried to dig deeper to explain how she had always believed that women could offer something to female players that men could never do.
“Women are a little more flexible,” she says, and for her, that's no coincidence, because women have to be. “Women are born with the ability in their bodies to give birth and increase population. They need to be adaptable. They need to know how to adapt because they need to bring other life into this world. Yes, it's in every woman's heart to want to be more flexible, more adaptable, more understanding, more emotional.”
That's why when the 21-year-old looks over the box during a match, she notices the steady presence of Sandra Zaniewska, who has become something of a tennis soulmate over the past nine months. “She's like my twin, 10 years younger,” Zaniewska said of Kostyuk in a recent interview.
Female coaches will be in the spotlight this weekend as qualifying matches for the Billie Jean King Cup are held in eight locations around the world. Former world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport will replace Cathy Rinaldi in her debut as coach of the U.S. national team in a tricky match against Belgium. Former top-10 player Ai Sugiyama will lead Japan with Naomi Osaka against Kazakhstan, while Ang Keotavon will face England and France, whom they defeated in 2023. Sam Stosur will lead Australia against Mexico.
Still, this is just 4 of the 16 teams in action this weekend, and if a female player wants another woman to coach them through the tough times of the tennis season, the choice will be much more difficult. It shows that it is limited. Zaniewska, 32, is one of the few female coaches on the professional tennis tour, with just 5 percent of female coaches at Wimbledon last year, but her ranking has been slowly rising in recent years.
When her new player faced British No. 1 Katie Boulter in the final of last month's San Diego Open, it was a title at stake between veteran coach Biljana Veselinovic and two players with female coaches. It was a rare one-on-one battle. From Serbia, supports Bolter.
Kostyuk faces off against Boulter in San Diego (Sean M. Huffey/Getty Images)
A full-time position will require you to travel 20-30 weeks per year, and perhaps an additional few weeks during the short off-season in November and December. It's not a particularly family-friendly work environment, though. Tennis veterans say this is the biggest obstacle to getting more women into leadership positions, especially after their careers end, when they start families, usually in their late 20s or early to mid-30s. Former players often talk about this.
“I don't think I would be here if I had a family or children,” Zaniewska said. “I don't even want to be here. So I get it.”
But things are getting better.
Pam Shriver, a 22-time Grand Slam doubles champion, has been helping Croatian coach Donna Vekic for the past year and a half as her children grow from high school to young adulthood. She says her WhatsApp group, where top female coaches share tips, talk professionally and teach each other useful research, is also growing.
The dozen-plus members include Judy Murray, mother of two very talented brothers named Andy and Jamie, and OG coach; They include Conchita Martinez, who coached her compatriot Garbine. Muguruza is currently collaborating with Czech Marie Bouzková.
“If you tried to start a WhatsApp group for women coaches a few years ago, there would probably only be two or three members,” Schreiber said.
We also discuss the physical and mental realities of the game that only women, whether players or coaches, have to deal with. Like Kostyuk and Zaniewska, Schreiber has no doubt that the presence of women brings mutual added value, especially the emotional and physical ups and downs that women have to deal with but not men. As for that, yes.
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek recently spoke openly about how premenstrual syndrome (PMS) disrupts her on-court form and mental control, while Zheng Qinwen suffers from severe menstrual pain. Before that, he had a real chance to score a famous victory against Swiatek at Roland Garros in 2022. Her hopes are over. After the match, Kinwen frankly said that she “wished it was a man”, in contrast to her feelings, which had to euphemize her loss at a Grand Slam tournament as “a girl thing”. Told.
“I don't know any female tennis players who don't have trouble managing their menstrual cycles and finding ways to consistently compete at the highest level,” Schreiber said.
It is impossible to know how many of the vaguely described injuries that put women out of the game are due to menstrual cycles or other complications of the reproductive system. Danielle Collins battled heavy, painful periods for years before she was finally diagnosed with endometriosis, a disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus. . Collins, 30, underwent surgery, but her desire to start a family, and the fact that her endometriosis could make it difficult for her to conceive, led to her retirement after this season. I plan to. She is playing the best tennis of her career. The man keeps asking her if she is really quitting. Women, not so much.
Chingwen had defeated Swiatek before being sidelined by menstrual cramps (Shi Tang/Getty Images)
It is worth noting the difficulty of delving further into the differences between male and female coaches without falling into some cultural stereotypes, particularly the common generalization that women are more emotional and sensitive than men. To do. Everyone does it, including Schreiber, Kostyuk, Zaniewska, and even Katrina Adams, a former player who became president of the United States Tennis Association and vice president of the International Tennis Federation.
Some female coaches struggle with empathy, while other male coaches are sensitive, emotional, and flexible. Also, some female coaches specialize in tough relationships, while some male coaches are willing to give you a hard time. For Zaniewska, a native of Poland, the belief that her gender brings some kind of unique understanding didn't fuel her path to coaching. She became a coach almost by chance, at the age of 24, when her long-time friend Petra Martic from Croatia asked for her help.
At the time, Zaniewska's playing career was at a standstill. She battled injuries that prevented her from moving her ranking out of triple digits. As much as Martic needed her help, she needed help herself, so she thought she would be primarily a striking partner, and for a few weeks she Agreed to help the Croats.
Martic told Zaniewska that he liked how she talked about tennis as an extension of herself and a form of identity, and encouraged her to play as creatively as possible. So Martic asked her to become his full-time coach.
Zaniewska told her it was a crazy idea. She knew nothing about coordinating schedules or coaching players throughout the season.
No problem, Martic told her. They'll understand that part. “I trust you,” she said.
Zaniewska worked with Martic for two years. Her ranking jumped from her 90th place to her 14th place. Zaniewska found the same adrenaline coaching that she had during her playing days and proved her worth.
She then coached French veteran Alize Cornet for a year and worked as high performance director at Patrick Mouratoglou's academy in the south of France. But she knew that if the right opportunity with the right player came along, a chance to be one of the best, she would jump at it.
Last June, Kostyuk was vacationing in London during Wimbledon when Kostyuk's agent, Caroline Ebner, asked her if she would be interested in working with Kostyuk.
Here was that chance.
“Ann He’s an unbelievable athlete,” Zaniewska said of Kostyuk. “She has passion, emotion, a great serve. She comes back with so much energy. She can hit the ball. She can skate. She can come to the net. Drop. Shot.WDoesn't she have a hat? ” Off the court, Zaniewska shares a passion for the mind-body connection, the psychology that drives life on and off the court, as well as the intricacies of finance and investing that are key to building a sustainable life after tennis. I saw it. As her career.
A few days later, over breakfast in London, she asked Kostyuk a series of questions that went a long way to explaining her approach to coaching.
She asked Kostyuk why he plays tennis. What does she like about it? What are her goals? What does she think of her identity as a tennis player? What does she need? What does she look for in a coach?
All this is well known to Kostyuk, whose mother was her main coach from childhood until recently, although she returned to Ukraine last year.
Zaniewska and Kostyuk have been working together for nine months (Robert Prange/Getty Images)
As they began to work together, initially training for 10 days and then embarking on a two-and-a-half month road trip through the North American and Asian swings, Zaniewska persuaded Kostyuk to take advantage of her tennis personality and other aspects of her game. I persuaded him to lean into the part. The coaches (OK, male coaches) tried to suppress it.
Kostyuk is an emotional and passionate person, so it is natural that she does not strive for steely calm, but instead becomes emotional and passionate on the tennis court. Also, the creativity and diversity in her game is part of who she is. So don't ignore it and change your game to big serves and powerful forehands. Most importantly, on some days, she didn't feel as good after pushing through another training session, or she wasn't satisfied with her level in the second round of a random tournament. it's okay.
So are women more likely than men to accept it and understand what is causing their emotions? Or is it just another unavoidable stereotype sprinkled with truth? , is it more harmful than helpful to talk about such personal relationships between players and coaches?
“handThere are just more mood swings here,” Zaniewska explained. “And for me, it's like, 'OK, it's no big deal.' We all have good days and bad days in a way, and that's okay.” Marta needs to be happy and smile every day there is no. ”
Even if there are some not-so-fun moments, as long as they do a good job and have fun overall, everything will be fine. It's okay to be grumpy. “I've become a little bit more comfortable about these things because I've been through them and I've been through them myself. I'm used to it. It's normal.”
For Kostyuk, the freedom to feel whatever he was feeling was liberating. In fact, Kostyuk lost six of the first 15 games with his new coach, but he didn't care. She had a woman with wings who understood her.
“It was just pure,” she said.
Kostyuk is currently having the best season of his career during one of the most difficult times of his life, reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and the semifinals of Indian Wells. She lost to Boulter in the final in San Diego, and although she was up one set, she lost the next two matches 6-2, 6-2. Zaniewska said Kostyuk's desire to win may have gotten the better of her and caused her to lose focus. Once that was done, she and Zaniewska jumped in the car and headed into the desert for the start of Indian Wells. For 48 hours, morning and night, as they drove through the arid landscape, they never spoke about the game. Then they sat on a court outside Palm Springs, turned to each other, and talked.
It wasn't planned that way. She felt now was the right time for Zaniewska.
(Top photo: Robert Prange/Getty Images)
