Russell wins Coach of the Year in the 2024 ATP Awards

  • Posted: Dec 11, 2024

Michael Russell has been voted Coach of the Year in the 2024 ATP Awards after helping his countryman Taylor Fritz tread new ground on several fronts this season.

The No. 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Fritz competed in his maiden Grand Slam final on home soil at the US Open, reached the championship match at the Nitto ATP Finals, and earned the highest year-end finish in the PIF ATP Rankings by an American since James Blake also finished No. 4 in 2006. The 27-year-old Fritz also lifted ATP 250 titles in Delray Beach and Eastbourne this year.

“It’s amazing. I’m honoured,” Russell told ATPTour.com. “I’m humbled to be selected by my fellow stellar ATP coaches. It means a lot. We all work so hard under the radar. We spend a lot of hours working for the players to be in the best position possible and to maximise their talent. So it’s nice to really be recognised. And I’m very humbled and honoured.”

Himself a former No. 60 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Russell began working with Fritz in late 2021. In 2022, he helped the American lift his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title and crack the Top 10 for the first time, and Russell can now reflect on another stellar season in which Fritz racked up a 53-23 record.

“That’s very satisfying,” said Russell, when asked about Fritz’s achievements this year. “We always have process goals, and those are just to keep improving everything and getting stronger and more explosive on the court, off the court, working on your game. But to have the results goals is really fulfilling. To have those stellar results and finish the year in the Top 5 — the first American year-end No. 4 since James Blake — it’s great company to be in and hopefully we keep pushing the envelope and looking to strive even higher, for 2025 and beyond.”

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While it is achievements like reaching the US Open final that make headlines, Russell considers the most important aspect of his job to be the less ‘obvious’ day-to-day work that he believes can help Fritz achieve greater success.

“I’m definitely more focused on the process-oriented goals and just making sure Taylor’s getting more work in the gym and faster on court, and just becoming more of a complete player all around,” said Russell. “I think the results will speak for themselves and they will come. That’s been a focus that I’ve been on since the beginning, since we first started working together at the end of 2021.

“We’ve had really good synergy, and it’s been almost a steady climb up the rankings since then. I think it’s just a testament to continued work that we’ve done, and he’s continued to improve.”

Russell partly attributes his rise to becoming coach of a Top 5 star to his wife, Lilly, who believed his experiences as a player on the ATP Tour and his excellent tennis IQ could be put to good use after he stopped competing.

“After I retired from playing in 2015, I started coaching High Performance here in Houston,” explained Russell. “My wife, who is a part of the player support team, and obviously a big supporter of me, urged me to delve into professional coaching, because I had so much experience, almost ‘a PhD’ in tennis!

“That’s when I started working with USTA Player Development, and it’s when I first started working with Taylor a few weeks a year. We just had really good synergy and communication. So then, when the opportunity came for Taylor, looking for a full-time coach, it was a natural fit for me to step into that role, and it’s been a really good team ever since.”

<img alt=”Michael Russell” style=”width: 100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2023/09/05/03/00/russell-us-open-2023.jpg” />

Russell on the practice court with Fritz at the 2023 US Open. Photo Credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images.

While Russell has now been helping Fritz hit new heights for three seasons, he feels 2024 was an important one for his charge in terms of familiarising himself with being part of some of the biggest occasions in tennis. For Russell, those novel experiences also gave him the chance to learn as a coach.

“I just think it’s important for the player to continue to have that belief when they’re in the bigger stages and Taylor’s getting there,” he said. “He had a really heartfelt battle in the semi-finals at the US Open, and it was kind of a quick turnaround for the final coming from the late-night match to play the day match on Sunday. So that’s tricky, and that’s kind of a learning experience to really try the best you can to recover as soon as you can, which we did.

“But I think the main thing is, just by being in those experiences, the player has more confidence, that self-doubt isn’t there. It’s the assurance that they belong and knowing how to keep calm and poised and confident in those situations. My job, it’s to make sure that the player feels that way and he’s prepared strategically and tactically and physically going in to those matches.”

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