Andy Murray’s former coach explains how tennis is ‘missing a trick’ versus football
Managerial press conferences in football are such a big drawcard for the sport.
Sometimes, football fans are more eager to hear what their team’s manager has to say rather than a player.
The likes of Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte, and Pep Guardiola, among a litany of others, have given iconic post-match press conferences but in tennis, the players do most of the talking to the media.
Other than on a few occasions, tennis players’ coaches tend to stay away from journalists, although Juan Carlos Ferrero did speak to the media on occasion when he was working with Carlos Alcaraz.
In light of this, former Jack Draper and Andy Murray coach Jamie Delgado believes that tennis is “missing a trick” by not taking after football’s lead.
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He said on The Beyond Tennis Podcast, “I think they should do [press conferences] for tennis coaches. I have felt this for a little while. In football, the manager does media before and after the match.
“I do think that football managers or coaches, they are more known and more important to the media I guess.
“Because they have more access and they do press conferences, and in tennis, it doesn’t really happen. I think tennis is missing a bit of a trick there.”
Coaches in tennis play such a crucial role towards a player’s success. They are constantly giving out brief instructions to their charges, with what they say and when they say it potentially pivotal to the match’s outcome.
And yet, they still remain background figures to the wider public. According to Delgado, tournaments themselves could impose certain requirements on those coaches to make this happen.
He added, “I think the tournaments have to make a rule that if a coach is required for an interview that they do it. I think that will help a lot.
“A lot of the players have an hour of media to do. I think you could cut down a bit of the time from an hour to 40 minutes that the players do and give another 20 minutes to the coach to do media stuff. I think it would improve the coaching industry loads.”
Incidentally, Delgado was coaching Draper up until early May, before Murray joined the 24-year-old’s team for the grass court season.
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