In a sport obsessed with the next big thing, it is striking how often yesterday’s stars return to shape tomorrow’s results. While male coaches still dominate the courtside boxes of the WTA Tour, a quiet but meaningful shift is underway: a growing group of former champions and household names are stepping back into the fray, not with racquets but with clipboards, instincts and decades of lived experience. The result? Teen prodigies maturing at pace, late-career stalwarts sharpening their edge, and a Tour increasingly defined by the women who once graced it.
From Mirra Andreeva to Victoria Mboko: The Young Guns Guided by Icons
Conchita Martínez, once a Wimbledon champion and long-time tactician of the sport, has crafted one of the Tour’s most productive partnerships in recent memory with Mirra Andreeva. The pair joined forces in April 2024, when Andreeva—just 16 and already gathering momentum after a standout 2023—needed the right hand on the tiller. Under Martínez’s guidance, she stormed into the Roland-Garros semi-finals and collected her first career title in Iasi. Within a year she had cracked the Top 5 and secured back-to-back WTA 1000 trophies.
Andreeva herself attributes much of that surge to the Spaniard’s calm stewardship. “She always gives me a lot of great energy… we laugh, and it helps me release tension,” the teenager said during her run in Paris, summing up the blend of positivity and precision that has made the partnership click.
Another precocious talent choosing a female-led team is 19-year-old Victoria Mboko, already a WTA 1000 champion and pushing toward the top of the rankings. She works with former world No. 3 Nathalie Tauziat, joined by Noëlle van Lottum, a prominent figure of the 1990s who reached world No. 57 after her Wellington title in 1992. The pair are mapping out the next phase of Mboko’s rise with the kind of technical schooling only former players can supply.
Radwanska, Shriver and the Veteran Voices Reshaping the Tour
Female coaches may remain a numerical minority, but the quality of those operating at the highest level is unmistakable. Agnieszka Radwanska, once the brilliant problem-solver of the WTA, has been part of Magda Linette’s team for two years. Their age gap is a slim three years, an unusual dynamic, but one that has blossomed into a quietly successful alliance. Radwanska shepherded Linette through her run to the 2024 Australian Open semi-finals, a career-first breakthrough for the Polish No. 2.
Linette recently explained the logic behind the hire. “I admired the way Agnieszka saw the game… her ability to read opponents, stay calm, and make smart decisions,” she told the WTA. “I wanted someone who could guide me not just on court but in how I approach my work and the season.” Few could offer such counsel better than a Wimbledon finalist with five WTA 1000 titles to her name.
Pam Shriver is another big name who has returned to the grind of the Tour. The former US Open runner-up and world No. 3 spent three years supporting Donna Vekić, helping steer her to the Wimbledon 2024 semi-finals and the Olympic silver medal in Tokyo. Shriver described the coaching stint as “one of the greatest experiences” of her decades in tennis. She stepped back for family reasons, leaving behind a blueprint for success the Croatian can still draw upon.
The list continues: Australia’s Nicole Pratt, a former world No. 35, has contributed to the campaigns of Kimberly Birrell and Storm Hunter while serving in the Billie Jean King Cup set-up. Meanwhile Anna Kalinskaya has found stability with Patricia Tarabini, the Argentine doubles specialist who peaked at world No. 29 in singles and No. 12 in doubles, collecting 15 titles and an Olympic bronze along the way. Tarabini’s veteran savvy has quietly bolstered Kalinskaya’s rise.
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