Changing coach or reinventing yourself: the off-season, time for big decisions
Each end of season opens up a quiet but decisive project: strategic choices. The off-season, a brief pause in a saturated calendar, becomes the only time when players can analyze their year, assess their entourage, and adjust their team.
Some choose to break a cycle that’s running out of steam, others prefer to keep their core structure while adding freshness or modernizing their methods. In a sport more demanding than ever, knowing how to reorganize during the off-season has become essential.
WHY CHANGE COACH DURING THE OFF-SEASON?
With around six weeks of downtime before the new season begins, players must find the right balance between rest, playing exhibitions, and deep training. This period is also dedicated to physical strengthening as well as developing new technical and tactical directions.
It is precisely these latter elements that can prove decisive in preparation, whether it’s to surprise opponents, improve a specific area of the game, or adopt a different mental approach.
In a context where the ATP and WTA calendars are increasingly packed, the window to implement deep changes remains extremely narrow. And changing coach in the middle of the season often proves to be a tricky choice, sometimes even counterproductive.
The off-season therefore seems like the perfect opportunity for players to clean up their staff or reinforce it. In December, they can work without the immediate pressure of results, lay the foundations of a new project, and embark on a full cycle of physical and technical preparation.
Obvious sporting reasons
At the end of an eleven-month season, players scrutinize their year. The ranking never lies: stagnation, regression, or an inability to take the next step are enough to plant the seed of doubt. Early exits, failures at big events, and repeated losses to the same type of opponents are all signals that push players to seek a new perspective.
In this context, the coach, the pivot of the sporting project, is naturally questioned. The phenomenon is reinforced by the evolution of tennis: increased physical intensity, rapid adaptation to surfaces, and the importance of having decisive weapons to compete with the very best.
Some players then feel they’ve hit a technical or tactical ceiling with their current staff.
Frances Tiafoe illustrates this logic perfectly. In October 2025, as the off-season approaches, the American decides to part ways with David Witt.
Despite a quarterfinal at Roland Garros, his ambitions for the season as a whole were higher. “I wanted to make a fresh start, get out of my comfort zone,” he explained, fully assuming his desire to break away before beginning a new cycle.The change can also be linked to human reasons. The relationship between a player and a coach is one of the most intense in sport: travel, daily training, constant pressure, managing highs and crises. Over time, this closeness can wear out.
Words that don’t land the same way, eroding trust, or a routine that sets in can be enough to weaken a duo.
The off-season then offers a valuable moment to step back. Without official competition, players have the time needed to analyze the dynamics within their team. It’s often in this pause that the truth becomes clear: the relationship no longer works as it once did.
When the need for renewal becomes too strong, the off-season is the ideal time to start from scratch. That’s when the cleanest breaks happen, the ones that redefine a sporting project and sometimes a career.
MAJOR CHANGES MADE DURING THE OFF-SEASON
In the recent history of tennis, some off-seasons have marked true turning points in the careers of top players.
It is often in this transition period, away from tournament pressure, that the most decisive choices are made: a new coach, a new method, or a change in game philosophy.
Djokovic–Becker, a bet that more than paid off
In 2013, a week before Christmas, Novak Djokovic made a major splash by announcing the arrival of Boris Becker as his head coach. The news surprised the entire tour: the German, a six-time Grand Slam champion, had never coached at the highest level.
Djokovic was adamant, however: “Boris will be coach No. 1.” Becker thus took the lead over Marian Vajda, his long-time mentor, who remained on the team but with a lighter role.
At the time, the Serb was coming off a frustrating season: Nadal had taken the No. 1 spot from him and beaten him at Roland Garros and in the US Open final, while Andy Murray defeated him at Wimbledon. Djokovic felt the need for an outside perspective, a new voice capable of pushing him mentally in decisive moments.
The gamble paid off. Between 2014 and 2016, the Serb dominated the tour: six Grand Slam titles, fourteen Masters 1000 titles, and two year-end No. 1 finishes. He also completed the career Grand Slam in 2016 by winning Roland Garros.
The 2013 off-season will be remembered as a major turning point in his career, the moment when Djokovic chose absolute demands. With Becker, he redefined his relationship with pressure and entered one of the most impressive periods of dominance in modern tennis history.
With Lendl, Murray joined the elite
In December 2011, Andy Murray also made a decisive turn. After a solid season marked by missed opportunities, he knew he still lacked one more step to truly join the game’s greatest champions. He turned to Ivan Lendl, former world No. 1 and eight-time Grand Slam winner, whose career resembled his: several lost finals before the breakthrough.
The result was immediate. Under Lendl’s guidance, Murray became more aggressive, more consistent, and above all mentally stronger. In 2012, he won Olympic gold and his first Grand Slam at the US Open, before triumphing at Wimbledon in 2013.
The 2011 off-season will thus remain the moment he gave himself the means to firmly enter the circle of champions capable of beating Federer, Nadal, or Djokovic.
Cahill propelled Halep to the top
In the winter of 2015, Simona Halep decided to entrust her sporting future to Darren Cahill, a respected figure on tour and a shrewd strategist. The Romanian was looking for a team capable of helping her evolve her game.
Under Cahill’s guidance, Halep became more aggressive, moved better, and gained tactical clarity. The Australian coach, who had seen all of the Romanian’s potential, helped her reach world No. 1 in 2017 and then, in 2018, win her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros.
While some off-seasons give rise to historic duos that transform a career, others show that changing coach remains a gamble, sometimes a risky one. Incompatible approaches, overly high expectations, poor results: some choices intended to relaunch a dynamic end up weakening it instead.
LOSING BETS OF THE OFF-SEASON
To find some failures that began in the off-season, you only have to go back to 2024.
As Jannik Sinner established himself at the top of the rankings, Novak Djokovic, 37, looked for solutions to regain the upper hand over the Italian — and over Carlos Alcaraz — for the following season.
In November, the Serb caused a stir: he announced the arrival of Andy Murray, freshly retired, as his new coach. The idea made headlines: two former rivals united in a common project, technical insights inherited from their battles, and the hope that a completely new perspective would reignite Djokovic. But Murray had never coached before, and expectations skyrocketed quickly.
Reality soon caught up with the duo. Five months later, the partnership ended after a series of disappointing results: a retirement in the Australian Open semifinals, early exits in Doha, Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, and Madrid. Only the final reached in Miami slightly improved the picture.
Murray himself summed up this aborted attempt: “I’m glad I did it, I was fully invested. But I’m disappointed I didn’t get the results I was hoping for him.”
Rybakina–Ivanisevic, a lightning breakup
On the women’s side, Elena Rybakina, Wimbledon champion in 2022, decided to start from scratch after a difficult 2024 season. She split from Stefano Vukov, weakened by harassment accusations, and bet on a prestigious name to get back on track: Goran Ivanisevic, the former champion turned elite coach after five fruitful years alongside Novak Djokovic.
The gamble immediately generated excitement: with her power and serve, many imagined Rybakina becoming again a major contender for Grand Slam titles. Some, like Alex Corretja, even saw her finishing the year as No. 1.
But the honeymoon was short-lived. Barely two months after their collaboration began, the Kazakh and the Croat ended their association. Ivanisevic briefly mentioned off-court issues and the impossibility of continuing in conditions he couldn’t control:
“There are things that happened away from the court. I had no control over that. At some point, I realized the best decision was to leave. I didn’t want to be involved in all that.”In a sport where coaches sometimes change faster than racquets, some players prefer another path: keeping their main coach while adjusting everything around them. It’s no longer about blowing everything up, but optimizing a structure that already works, making it more efficient and sustainable.
Often, the conclusion is simple: the central relationship remains strong but needs renewal. After years of collaboration, even the most effective duos feel the benefit of adding an extra expertise, spreading out the mental load, or bringing in an external viewpoint.
Without competition and with real time to reflect, the off-season then becomes the ideal time to refine the organization rather than rebuild it from scratch. An approach that appeals to more and more champions, who want to preserve continuity while injecting freshness.
“Having a second voice is essential”
In 2024, Carlos Alcaraz used the off-season to fine-tune his team’s structure. Without touching his main pillar, Juan Carlos Ferrero, he added a second voice: Samuel López. López then explained the logic behind this redistribution of roles:
“The years together, the travel and the tension build up. A lot of responsibility rests on the coach. Having a second voice is essential: it’s a new figure capable of bringing freshness.”
A choice that paid off. In 2025, Alcaraz put together an exceptional season (world No. 1, two Grand Slams, eight titles), supported by a balanced setup: López would step in when Ferrero needed a break, before the duo reunited for the big events.
But this strategy is not new. In 2013, Roger Federer had already adopted this model by adding Stefan Edberg alongside Severin Lüthi. “We get along really well,” the Swiss explained at the time, seeing Edberg more as an additional expert than a structural change.
Modernizing your staff: science, data and physical preparation at the heart of the off-season
The off-season is also the ideal moment to modernize a team and adapt it to the demands of contemporary tennis.
While the head coach remains the pivot, performance now relies on a broader team: video analysts, data specialists, fitness trainers, physios, and psychologists. The objective is clear: optimize every detail in a sport where margins are razor-thin.
Without competition, players can finally integrate new tools and build a real physical base. At a time when tennis is becoming more explosive and demanding, preparation is entrusted to experts capable of designing heavy training blocks while limiting injury risk.
Emma Raducanu has made this a central focus ahead of her 2026 season. The 2021 US Open champion has hired a new fitness coach, Emma Stewart, to regain top physical condition and return sustainably to the highest level.
Sabalenka’s winning choices
Aryna Sabalenka anticipated this evolution well before others. As early as the 2021 off-season, after reaching world No. 2, the Belarusian added data specialist Shane Liyanage to her team, tasked with analyzing her game and that of her opponents. An invisible but essential part of her rise.
Then, in 2022, faced with a failing serve (428 double faults over the season), Sabalenka turned to biomechanics expert Gavin MacMillan, who helped her rebuild her motion in depth.
The result: a major technical transformation, now seen as one of the decisive turning points of her career.
Thanks to these choices made during the off-seasons, Sabalenka has gradually established herself as one of the most complete players on tour, a four-time Grand Slam champion firmly installed at the top of the WTA rankings.
THE OFF-SEASON, A MIRROR OF AMBITIONS AND THE FATE OF A SEASON
A period of rest, the off-season is also the moment when players make crucial decisions for their future. It is during these weeks away from the courts and the media that they outline the shape of the coming season, which, depending on their choices, may be crowned with success or marked by disappointment.
Changing coach, modernizing the team, or adding new expertise become decisive levers for approaching the next season with ambition and efficiency.
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