Like father, like son: The US Open final puts father-son coaching in the spotlight
Familial coaching in tennis has long been a feature of the sport, one especially prominent on the junior circuit, where players have reported mostly positive but largely mixed feelings about parental involvement.
It was a family affair on center court at Arthur Ashe Stadium during Sunday’s U.S. Open final.
The men’s final featured American Ben Shelton, who was competing in his maiden Grand Slam final, and Germany’s tennis veteran Alexander Zverev. The two players are coached by their fathers in what had been billed as a clash of prominent tennis families.
Zverev’s mother, father and older brother played professionally, as did Shelton’s father, who used to coach at the University of Florida, where Shelton played at the collegiate level.
Even though Zverev got the better of the 23-year-old Shelton 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-4, the match also offered an endearing glimpse of the father-son relationships behind two of the sport’s rising stars. Bryan Shelton, who played on the pro tour between 1989 to 1997 and was deeply influenced by Arthur Ashe, the first Black man to win a Grand Slam singles title, was a frequent presence in interviews and news conferences throughout his son’s run at this year’s Open.
Familial coaching in tennis has long been a feature of the sport, one especially prominent on the junior circuit, where players have reported mostly positive but largely mixed feelings about parental involvement in their careers, according to national survey data.
But at the highest level of tennis — and sport more broadly — it is far rarer, as parents typically hand over the reins to a network of professional coaches with specializations across the different facets of elite athletic competition, from diet and fitness to recovery, psychology and performance, said Alan Klein, a professor emeritus of anthropology at Northeastern University.
Klein, who has studied athletic development and sports culture for nearly 50 years, said that parents can have a positive impact on the professional development of young athletes — even on the sidelines as they achieve their potential. But the downsides are less discussed, he said, noting how the lines between a parent’s emotional role and professional role can become blurred.
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In some ways, that painful blurring-of-lines is inevitable, Klein said. Parents can also become vicariously invested in their children’s athletic success in ways that have little to do with the child’s own ambitions, a phenomenon he described as “failed athlete syndrome.”
This describes a dynamic where the parent’s failures motivate them to push the child to achieve what they weren’t able to achieve themselves. While he’s observed countless instances of this in sport, Klein said the phenomenon transcends athletic competition.
In tennis, family dysfunction has spilled over into public feuds and coaching disputes, such as the tension between Stefanos Tsitsipas and his father and longtime coach, Apostolos. The pair parted ways earlier this year following years of dismal results. Tsitsipas has praised the Shelton family dynamic as the way “a father should be around his child playing competitive tennis.” The Sheltons display a more collaborative spirit, with clearer boundaries between the father-son relationship and the coaching dynamic.
The issues between parent and child can sometimes be harder to pin down when the two roles overlap. Venus and Serena Williams were coached by their father, Richard Williams, from a young age, after he famously developed a plan for them to become professional tennis players before they were even born.
Some observers have described his influence on the iconic sisters as intensely hands-on and demanding — even controlling. But the sisters have mostly pushed back against occasional insinuations that their father was overbearing or otherwise detrimental to their development as players or people.
In the case of Rafael Nadal, who won 22 Grand Slams, controversy surrounded the intense demands his uncle and longtime coach, Toni Nadal, placed on him since he was a youngster, including periods when Nadal was pushed to the brink of injury.
“The family dance of youth sports and parents being so directly involved in them can be a tricky one,” said Daniel Lebowitz, executive director of The Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University.
The multifaceted nature of professional competition today means that parents can play a range of roles in an athlete’s career beyond coaching, from managing finances and career decisions to overseeing branding and the daily logistical demands of life on tour, said Evodio Kaltenecker, associate teaching professor of international business and strategy at Northeastern.
“We saw this in other sports, such as soccer, with Messi’s parents being deeply involved in his career from its early days, golf, with Tiger Woods’ father, and the NFL with Peyton and Eli Manning,” Kaltenecker said.
Lebowitz noted that the fact that Shelton and Zverev come from a long line of professional tennis players doesn’t mean their families have played the same role in their careers. Shelton played for his father at the University of Florida and had the financial management of his career handled by professional agencies, he said. Zverev, on the other hand, played on the youth tennis circuit, and has had his family lead and manage both his coaching and his business affairs.
But both families, Lebowitz said, exemplify the “delicate balance and decision-making” required in navigating elite athletic competition.
“This final was a blueprint for what positive family investment and the power of sport can teach and display at its best,” he added.
