Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has declared that he’s in the hunt for a new coach. Given that he’s been without one for a year-and-a-half, my first inclination is to ask, “What on earth took you so long?”
The top name on the short list appears to be that of Larry Stefanki, who’s coached, among others, John McEnroe, Marcelo Rios, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, and—most recently—newly retired Andy Roddick.
Stefanki, however, says he’s enjoying this current break from the touring and coaching life, and is content for now to watch his third and youngest son, Joe, finish out his high school years as a catcher on the baseball team. But you have to wonder, is that a negotiating ploy by a man who has also admitted that he doesn’t feel as if his work in tennis is done?
Whether or not Stefanki and Tsonga would be a good fit is hard to determine, given that <em>etrangers</em> don’t have a particularly good history coaching French players. One reason for that, though, may be that French players and coaches enjoy a higher degree of camaraderie than the pros of other nations, and bringing a foreigner into the mix could well make the player in question feel a little, well, funny. But bear in mind that Stefanki had a long and successful relationship with Kafelnikov, as well as a shorter one with Rios, so he knows how to navigate cultural differences.
It’s for certain an interesting situation, because for all the truth in what I just wrote, you have to wonder if a dramatic coaching change wouldn’t be a good thing for the obviously talented Tsonga, who hasn’t played a Grand Slam final since his first and only one—way back in early 2008. As for the man who beat him in that one, Djokovic, we know what he’s done in the intervening years.