The ATP Awards 2024 are near and the two categories which seem to be most fascinating this time are – Most Improved Player of the Year award and the Coach of the Year award. In December 2023, the now World No.1 Jannik Sinner won the former accolade while both his coaches, Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi were declared the best on the ATP Tour.
This year, Sinner could be succeeded by four potential players, i.e. Jack Draper, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, Tomas Machac or Alejandro Tabilo. On the other hand, the nominees for the Coach of the Year award are Michael Russell (Taylor Fritz’s coach), Brad Stine (Tommy Paul’s coach), Xavier Malisse (Alexei Popyrin’s coach), Emmanuel Planque (Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard’s coach) and James Trotman (Jack Draper’s coach).
The two names which stand out in the nominees are clearly Draper and Mpetshi Perricard. Starting with the Brit No.1, he pulled off memorable wins against three top 10 players, i.e. Carlos Alcaraz at Queen’s, Hubert Hurkacz in Tokyo and ironically, Taylor Fritz in Paris. The Brit became only the second player from his country after Andy Murray to make it to multiple Masters 1000 quarterfinals.
With titles in Stuttgart and Vienna this year too, Draper could be a frontrunner for the ATP Most Improved Player award. A lot of credit for his success goes to Trotman, who can’t be counted out for the coaches’ award.
Trotman is a former professional player from Great Britain who has been coaching Draper since 2021. The young star has acknowledged Trotman’s role in helping him reach the US Open 2024 semifinals, which could be a watershed moment in his career.
Trotman reportedly ordered Draper to stop consuming caffeine and using his smartphone much, the two habits which have made the latter improve significantly. Trotman is someone hands-on, who is not shy of belting out loud and simple messages to encourage Draper, while also providing him with strategies or tactics in real time depending on the situation of the match.
However, Draper is not the only breakout star of 2024. Another player who has risen like a phoenix is Mpetshi Perricard.
Mpetshi Perricard: From copying Nadal to becoming the Tour’s ‘Ace King’
Mpetshi Perricard delighted his home crowd in France by winning his debut tournament on the ATP Tour, i.e. the ATP 250 Lyon Open in May 2024. Perricard overcame the likes of Lorenzo Sonego, Alexander Bublik and Tomás Martín Etcheverry in an impressive feat.
However, his best match till date has been the 5-set win over USA’s Sebastian Korda in the first round of Wimbledon this year. That made him announce himself to the world that he is potentially here to stay and win big matches and tournaments.
What could go against Perricard is that he had a lean run from the Wimbledon Round of 16 until the Swiss Indoors in Basel. Perricard made the most of the indoors conditions and had one of the most remarkable runs by any player at the venue.
Perricard not only defeated Ben Shelton for the second time in 2024 in the final, but prior to that, Holger Rune (semifinals), Denis Shapovalov (quarterfinals) and Felix Auger-Aliassime (Round of 16) on route to the win.
Many of those names are big servers but Perricard gave them a taste of their medicine, which made many pundits and fans crown him the new ‘Ace King’ of the ATP Tour. A big server in his heyday, Andy Roddick himself expressed shock at the fact that Perricard is a rare player who was able to average 129 mph on the second serve. World No.3 Carlos Alcaraz also endorsed Perricard by calling him the most dangerous server in the sport today, after defeating him in the first round of the China Open.
Although Perricard needs to improve on his return game, his coach Emmanuel Planque has done a great job in engineering his rise. Planque has three decades of coaching experience at the national and top levels as well.
Apart from being a former player, Planque’s first claim to fame as coach was when he masterminded Frenchman Lucas Pouille’s win over Rafael Nadal in the US Open Round of 16 match in 2016.
Planque is unafraid to claim that Nadal’s style of play which involves taking a lot of strikes to win a point after rallying relentlessly from the baseline, is outdated. As a result, Perricard, who is ironically a Nadal enthusiast, has altered his game after Planque’s strict instructions and vigilance.
The result being that Perricard uses his height as an advantage to push his body for those monstrous serves. When it comes to rallies, he is increasingly relying on 2 to 3 strikes to finish off points aggressively, as the likes of Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have upped the tempo of the game.
It has seen Perricard jump to the World No.31 spot to end the 2024 season. And that could give Planque an outside chance to win the Coach of the Year award.
This is all set to be a huge contest between these incredible personalities. The award is the ultimate claim to showcase a player’s achievements since their coaches will always have a huge hand in their success, even though their work is primarily behind the scenes.
