In recent years, the Latvian specialist has coached several high-level tennis players. Why with women? “I started working with Alon Ostapenko and things somehow went in that direction,” explains Andis Juška. “I can play [kā sparingpartneris], and being a coach – performing two functions at the same time. It’s quite in demand, especially on the women’s tour. That’s why it was much easier for me to find that job and choose among the players.”
Would it be easier and maybe more profitable with men? “I wouldn’t say it’s more profitable. But it’s easier, because dudes are dudes,” says the coach. “For women, it’s emotional. And the season is long – almost the whole year they go from tournament to tournament, training and tournaments again. Guys somehow digest it much easier, but it’s much more difficult for girls. Men communicate with each other, they can go out to dinner together, it’s a completely different relationship than on the women’s tour. But on the women’s tour: I won’t train with this, I’ll train with this and so on. There’s a whole list of what you can and can’t play.”
In the meantime, Latvian specialist Piotrs Nechajevs works in the US club. At the American tournaments this spring, Ostapenko served as head coach, but he does not work with other world-class players. “I think he doesn’t really have the desire to drive around. He has a family. On tour, you have to drive around all the time – not everyone can pull it off,” Juška estimates. “It seems very nice. “Grand Slam” and big tournaments seem nice from the outside. But when you’re there for a year, two or three, it’s not easy.”
Why don’t our coaches work with high level players in men’s tennis? “There simply aren’t those specialists anymore. How can you put yourself forward – you have been a good player yourself or have brought someone out. If you simply complete higher education or take ATP courses, unfortunately no one is interested in you. According to the papers, no one is interested in you, if we’re being honest. Dating, through agents or you know a player. It’s not that easy to get in there.”
As a player, Andis Juška once reached the 226th place in the world ranking, but ended his tennis career at the age of 29 (2014). “The shoulder injury tormented me for many years. I had to stop sometime in 2011, but I continued to play [ar pretsāpju līdzekļiem] – that was not the solution to all of this.”
During his playing career, Juška was also helped by the local federation, but the financial situation was not bright. “We went everywhere by car, we didn’t fly anywhere. At that time it was more profitable to go by car. Now there are other times – you can also fly cheaper, but at that time it wasn’t like that. It was eight nine hundred for two people to fly somewhere. If we went by car, then two hundred . That was the difference between two people,” recalls the tennis expert.
Today, the salaries of world tour player coaches consist of a base salary and a very individual percentage (about 5-10) of the prize money. Because of the interest, it is more financially beneficial to work with a higher level tennis player who goes far in major tournaments. In order for the coach to receive the mentioned percentage, the player must reach at least 1/8 finals.
2023-11-23 22:55:00
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