Sport360's tennis expert Reem Abulleil is in Doha for the ongoing Qatar Total Open and each day offers her thoughts on the big talking points of the tournament.
We’re used to seeing fathers as coaches on the WTA Tour and quite often it doesn’t result in the best of scenarios.
Players reach a point where they are stuck between having to fire their own father or continuing in a strained and uncomfortable professional relationship.
The introduction of on-court coaching also revealed more arguments between fathers and daughters than we would have liked to witness in a tennis match and all in all, it just seems like a bad idea.
Getting coached by a brother however seems to be a better option. At least it is for Jelena Jankovic, who is coached by her brother Marko, and is showing some of her very best tennis over the past year or so.
She’s often spotted yelling towards her box in frustration during her matches, but the world No8 tells me there are a lot of benefits to being coached by her own brother.
“The advantage is that he knows my personality and my character the best and knows what I need, especially on the court. He knows my weaknesses,” said the 28-year-old.
“We work on improving my strengths too. All this, just working on improving little things here and there.
“And the disadvantage is that, you know, he’s my brother. He can tell me whatever he wants, and I can tell him whatever,” she added laughing.
“That’s why sometimes I start yelling over there and I don’t mean it. It’s just kind of the frustration I let out during the matches.
“But off the court I think we get along very well, and on the court, as well. It’s just brother and sister, you know, it’s a relationship that’s very close.
“We love each other. I’m very close to my family, and we just support each other and take care of each other.”
Stepanek misses a trick
Since Valentine’s Day was on Friday, I tried to find out whether Petra Kvitova received any special gifts from her tennis playing boyfriend Radek Stepanek, but the 23-year-old Czech said she doesn’t really celebrate the day.
“It’s from the USA. In the Czech Republic, we don’t really celebrate on this day,” said Kvitova, who lost to Jankovic.
With lots of experience dating and even marrying tennis players, surely Stepanek knows a small gesture on this day couldn’t hurt.
