At the beginning of February the time had finally come: at the age of 24, Jurij Rodionov was ranked 89th in the world rankings. For the first time in his career, he was happy about a double-digit ATP ranking.
After he was able to crack the top 100 last year as number 100 in the world, this was the next important milestone for the ÖTV-Daviscupper and at the same time the first under the aegis of coach Gilbert Schaller.
The 55-year-old Styrian has been at Rodionov’s side for six months and has already completed preparation for the 2024 season with the Lower Austrian.
“I’m not the touring coach, but I’m responsible for the training and the philosophy in general,” explains Schaller in an interview LAOLA1.
Challenger title thanks to Australia waiving
In favor of longer preparation for the season, they decided not to compete in qualifying for the Australian Open at the beginning of the year. In the end, it was probably the right decision, as Rodionov was able to win the Challenger tournament in Koblenz at the end of January, which gave him the aforementioned jump into the top 100.
After that, things didn’t go as planned on the hard court, but with the switch to clay the victories came back. At the beginning of April, Rodionov reached the semi-finals of the Challenger tournament in Madrid. He also reached the round of 16 at the ATP 250 tournament in Munich, where he only lost to Alex Zverev.
Schaller criticizes the exploitation of opportunities
“He played really well at the clay court tournaments recently,” said Schaller, who also sees enough room for improvement in his protégé.
“What definitely needs to be improved is the evaluation of chances,” he says, especially with regard to Rodionov’s three-set defeat in the Madrid qualification against Poland’s Valentin Vacherot. “He was actually the better player for long stretches, but then he carelessly conceded breaks and lost the match as a result. He just has to become more consistent.”
This requires a broad chest in order to be able to act with the necessary courage on the court: “Of course that also has to do with his mindset. He simply needs to become more stable and gain the confidence so that he can actively earn the important points. There He sometimes becomes too passive and waits for the opponent to make a mistake.”
He simply needs to have more confidence in himself, stay active and take charge. Even if it doesn’t work out, it’s still better than hoping for your opponent’s mistake.
According to Schaller, Rodionov needs to stay more active
“And if you become passive, the chance of you making a stupid mistake increases. You just have to have more confidence in yourself, stay active and take control. Even if it doesn’t work out , but it’s still better than hoping for the opponent’s mistake.”
Rodionov brings in mental trainers to help
To improve this, Rodionov recently started working with a mental trainer. “That’s a good step because of course it always has to do with his personality. Because behavior under pressure always reflects his personality. But of course it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process,” says Schaller .
“We have to do the rest of the job on the pitch. He just needs to gain more confidence in himself through training.” Then he can “remain active even in important situations”.
Contact since our youth
But how did Schaller and Rodionov come to work together? “Of course we knew each other because he had already worked with Martin Spöttl a few years ago. That was still in his youth. Austria is not that big, so you don’t lose sight of each other, especially in the Vienna area.”
“His fitness coach, Florian Pernhaupt, contacted me and asked whether I could imagine working together. Then I sat down with Jurij at the end of the year. At that time he was actually pretty down because he was totally lost when it came to tennis. “
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A trial period in December worked so well that they wanted to try it again this season. “We want to get the best out of it step by step,” said Schaller, because long-term planning is always difficult in tennis.
“Yuri isn’t getting any younger”
In the past, Rodionov has tried many different supervisors. The Lower Austrian has already sought input from Wolfgang Thiem, Günter Bresnik and some foreign supervisors, among others. However, a truly lasting collaboration never materialized. The Nuremberg native is now 25 years old.
“Jurij isn’t getting any younger. He’s certainly not a player who’s old news yet. In my opinion, he’s actually slowly coming into his prime as a tennis professional,” Schaller sees his protégé slowly coming under pressure.
Returning to the top 100 should be achieved with more personal responsibility
Above all, the Styrian wants to promote the Lower Austrian’s “own initiative”. “Of course I have a philosophy and an idea that he identifies with, that he can live with and that he feels comfortable with. But he has to make decisions in the game under stress on the pitch. That’s why I want him to do more We take personal responsibility and are not just a recipient of orders. We have a mutual agreement on what is important to both of us when it comes to the content. In this way, we want to improve our quality.
“I don’t want to keep telling him what he has to do and then he should just play it down. I want him to turn on his own head, because he needs that in the match as well,” says Schaller, who sees a certain maturity required in order to be able to to be able to succeed in the top 100.
However, the primary goal is to return there for the first time anyway. Since he has lost a few points from the previous year in the last few weeks, Rodionov is currently only ranked 133rd in the ATP rankings.
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2024-05-16 08:22:10
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