ATP Tour

Coach of the Year: Cahill & Vagnozzi, Ferrero & Lopez among the nominees

Success on the ATP Tour is rarely the product of individual brilliance alone. Coaches meticulously plan, constantly refine, and reinforce belief. They are instrumental in a player’s progress.

This year, five coaches or coaching teams have been nominated for Coach of the Year in the 2025 ATP Awards, voted on by fellow coaches. Here are the nominees:

Darren Cahill & Simone Vagnozzi (Jannik Sinner)
Sinner added six titles to his trophy cabinet, including his maiden Wimbledon crown, which he secured just weeks after suffering an agonising defeat in the Roland Garros final. After making technical tweaks to his serve after the US Open, Sinner won four trophies in two months, including a successful title defence at the Nitto ATP Finals.

Juan Carlos Ferrero & Samuel Lopez (Carlos Alcaraz)
Alcaraz finished the season with a Tour-leading 71 match wins, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, and earned ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF honours. He captured eight titles, including two major crowns. Alcaraz, vocally backed by his large entourage, survived rival Sinner in a Roland Garros epic and again defeated the Italian in the US Open title match to reclaim World No. 1.

Frederic Fontang (Felix Auger-Aliassime)
Competing as World No. 30 in May, Auger-Aliassime was a long way from finishing the season inside the Top 5. The Canadian, coached by Fontang since 2017, reached five tour-level finals this year, including his second at ATP Masters 1000 level in Paris. Champion in Adelaide, Montpellier and Brussels, Auger-Aliassime qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals for the second time in his career.

Bryan Shelton (Ben Shelton)
Ben Shelton’s celebration after winning his biggest career title at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers in Toronto said it all. Hugging his father Bryan Shelton courtside, the 23-year-old lefty had just achieved a milestone moment with his dad in his corner. Shelton became the youngest American ATP Masters 1000 champion in two decades and reached a career-high No. 5 in November.

Benjamin Balleret (Valentin Vacherot)
Vacherot is more than just a player to Balleret, he is family. They are half-brothers who lived out a dream at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, where then-World No. 204 Vacherot became the lowest-ranked ATP Masters 1000 champion in history (since 1990). The family connections did not stop there. Vacherot beat his cousin Arthur Rinderknech in the final. Vacherot, the Monegasque player, finished the year at World No. 31.