Yes thank you have interpreted my post exactly as it was intended. Tiafoe is an athlete, his access to tennis from an early age serendipitous and he has followed his own passion, absolutely nothing wrong with that. He has a strong relationship with his father who has never been his coach.

My impression is that Fritz's involvement in tennis started in the cradle and was purely a product of his fathers passion for tennis, he wanted to play other sports but they were purely used to coerce him back to tennis when he had developed a voice of his own and said no.

His father is a fantastic coach and facilitated development of a close to technically perfect game, but they now have a strained at best relationship as adults ie that of an ex coach who has been sacked by a player because of personal differences as opposed to that of a father and son.

All that said Taylor seems to have an excellent reputation on court and off (that was also the feedback I got from local coaches in San Diego recently) although interestingly the feedback for Coco Vanderwege also coached by Taylor's father at some point was quite different. Frances now is paradoxically richer in his relationship with his father.

Sorry, Oakie, and tx Spec - I had misread the post, now get exactly what you're saying.

Partly from the article, but partly from others too, I think Fritz;s mother was very much on the same page in terms of hot-housing him as a kid i.e. it's a little unfair to blame it all on Fritz senior. She though had the sense to take a back step when he became a teenager.
There are very, very many French players who are coached by their parents - indeed, rather like those articles suggest (Fritz, Williams, Connors etc. etc.), it is one of the key things that can make tennis work - purely, from a financial point of view, it is one of the only ways it's feasible for most. (And therefore one of the reasons the LTA should think more laterally).
From a study I saw as it was getting done, it is notable, though, that fathers coach daughters far more successfully than sons. (Not that surprising, probably). And that parents in general coach way more successfully up to teenage years than during teenage years (again, not too surprising).
It's a shame that Mr. Fritz did not realise the wisdom of getting others involved and 'diluting' his presence. And good that his son learnt to stand up for himself.
The Russian coach/mentor of Frances (who has also now just been dropped, very much as Mr. Fritz has) should be very proud of what he's done - I wonder if he'll be recognised by the US tennis authorities in some capacity - he really should be.

Thanks.....understand it now !!!  Over the years I have seen so many parents clearly driving their kids's tennis project rather than supporting it and, although there are exceptions to prove the rule, very few of their offspring are still playing at all and almost certainly not profesessionally.  One of the exceptions though has had a good professional career, so I suppose horses for courses and all that...

So, in the usual manner of things, there are some interesting performances in the DC ...

To start off, a hurrah to the good players showing up in non-WG ties. Romania's team (Ungur, Copil, Tecau) in a Group I, Raven Klaasen (Group II Europe/Africa); the players in the Group I Asia tie between South Korea and Uzbekistan - which looks a bit of a corker!; Aisam Qureshi in Gp II - who carried the tie, winning both a singles and a doubles point; Malek Jaziri (Gp II Europe/Asia), etc.

Well done to Franko Skugor (223) for his victory over PCB (26). Croatia was hardly favoured to win ... but at least they won't be going down without a fight! Well done to Daniil Medvedev for taking the first set from Novak Djokovic ... and hope he recovers from his injury. Well done Ecuador for, like GB, keeping it 'in the family': unless I'm mistaken Roberto Quiroz and Emilio Gomez, their two singles players, are cousins. And hurrah for Belgium. Can't see them winning the reverse singles ... but they are going to take it to 5 at the very least, when they're on paper a far weaker team. Well done.

Edit: Was wrong on Belgium - and glad to stand corrected! Amazing from Steve Darcis. Congratulations! Congratulations to Croatia, too, for making what looked like a very uneven tie into a very tight one.

-- Edited by Spectator on Saturday 4th of February 2017 05:18:07 PM

Hurrah for Brian Baker

He's certainly has had a recent very good doubles record in challengers with different partners and now this maiden ATP 250 title with Mektic. And into the top 50 for the first time at WR 46.

Very pleased for him after being through so much.