DURING HER FINAL months as a professional tennis player, Sandra Zaniewska didn’t know what her next chapter would be following retirement, but she knew one thing for sure: She wanted nothing to do with tennis.

For much of her playing career, people had asked her if she was interested in coaching, but she always said simply, “No chance.” It didn’t interest her, and the idea of experiencing the globetrotting drudge of the tour for someone else’s career sounded torturous.

But when her career came to an end in 2017 at the age of 25, she was asked by her friend Petra Martic if she could temporarily help her as she returned to the tour following an injury. Zaniewska didn’t have any other plans, or much money, so she figured she would help for a few weeks before officially moving on from tennis. But before long, weeks turned into months, and months turned into years, and Martic rose from a ranking just inside the top 100 to No. 14 in the world.

And Zaniewska, the once reluctant, anything-but-tennis coach, was hooked. She knew she had found her true calling.

“I loved it, and I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I was meant to do this job,'” Zaniewska told ESPN. “From that moment on, I just stayed and I didn’t even want to explore anything else, to be honest. But it really hit me after (Petra and I) stopped working together about two years later because then I was able to look back at the time and I was like, ‘This really was the best adventure that I had in my entire life.”

Since then, Zaniewska has gone on to work with Alize Cornet, and she’s been coaching Marta Kostyuk, currently ranked No. 25, since 2023. But Zaniewska knows her journey is unique — “one in a billion,” she speculates — and she remains one of a handful of women coaching at the elite level in the sport. While coaching changes are frequent in tennis and it is sometimes difficult to identify the most current coaching partnerships, it is believed there are just 12 players out of 128 in the women’s main draw at the 2025 French Open who have a head coach that is a woman. Mirra Andreeva, who lost in the quarterfinals and is coached by Conchita Martinez, was the last player remaining to have one. There are no players in the men’s main draw with a woman head coach.

In a sport like tennis, which prides itself on equality and for its trailblazing history, it’s hard to believe there’s such disparity among the coaching ranks. How could there be so few women’s coaches, especially among women players? It’s a glaring discrepancy that has not gone unnoticed by those involved in the sport — and something that coaches like Zaniewska, in addition to the WTA, USTA and Tennis Australia are actively working to change.

“I feel like I was really, really lucky in the path that I had,” Zaniewska said. “I really just want more females to get those opportunities because there might be more stories like the one that I had. I know there are other coaches out there who are eager to learn and very good at what they do, they’re just not getting the chances to do it. I’m here (in this position) now and I want to hold the door open and let as many women through as possible.”

THERE ISN’T ONE easy answer as to why there remain so few women coaches on tour.

But there are several likely factors, many of which are deeply rooted in the sport, its culture and society at large. Nicole Pratt, a former-player-turned-coach and the women’s coach lead at Tennis Australia, spent years looking into the intricacies of the subject while developing the federation’s Coach Connect program to help recruit and develop women coaches.

“It’s pretty deep,” Pratt, who currently coaches both Storm Hunter and Kimberly Birrell on tour, told ESPN. “The complexity of ‘Why?’ is multidimensional with four different layers to it.”

Pratt believes it often starts with the individual coach and their own self-belief or lack of confidence. But that’s a small part of the puzzle. From there, it goes to what she defines as the “interpersonal and organizational layers,” and that’s where things like gender bias frequently come into play.

“We know that most people in sport are male, and that can often inadvertently create barriers for women coaches,” Pratt said. “I hear this all the time from women coaches. They are often told, ‘You’ll work well with younger girls,’ and they are pigeonholed into that.”

Pratt explained the next layer was a deeply ingrained “social cultural one,” and said many young girls are not raised to be brave or take risks in the same way young boys are. That can later translate to women not asking for opportunities — not wanting to seem aggressive or too forward — or not believing they are capable.

Additionally, she said, for some women who want to have a family, or already do, the idea of traveling the world 11 months out of the year can be a daunting one. In some cases, it might simply be impossible in conjunction with parental responsibilities. While the WTA announced a new maternity leave program earlier this spring, coaches are not eligible. They are essentially employees of individual players and usually lack many benefits.

But the disparity also comes down to what many players on tour consider an essential piece of their team: A hitting partner.

While the top players are able to travel with an extensive team that often includes a head coach and a hitting partner, the average player on tour cannot always afford to have both on the road. As a result, many players look for coaches that can also fill that role. Pratt, who retired as a player in 2008, noted that many of her peers during her time on tour hired “young, inexperienced male coaches” solely because they could hit and that’s what the player could afford.

“In the last few years, the pay has gone up and now many players can afford to have several people on their team so it is changing,” Pratt said. “But there still is this idea for some players of, ‘How can I get the most value for my money?’ as opposed to, ‘Who can I get that’s a really good coach?'”

While there is no formal record or list of hitting partners, WTA Director of Member Services Mike Anders told ESPN he wasn’t aware of any women currently in that role on tour. Much like WNBA and women’s college basketball teams have male practice players, most women prefer to practice with men, if not their tour-level peers. (The prevailing logic is that if a woman were good enough to hit with the tour’s best players, she would be on tour.)

And being a hitting partner can be a steppingstone for aspiring coaches. It’s a clear path into the sport for those who played collegiately or on the lower professional levels — and can often lead to more. Sascha Bajin, Michael Joyce and Andrew Bettles, each a current head coach of a player in the main draw at Roland Garros, also began in the professional ranks as hitting partners.

“There are a lot of male coaches on the tour that start off as hitting partners, and then they kind of turn into coaches after a while, but they always can hit when needed,” Zaniewska said. “And I think players might view female coaches that can’t hit with them, like, ‘Okay, is she really able to help me? What if I need someone to hit with me at a tournament?'”

And simply being around the tour — a relatively small, insular community — gives those hitting partners an edge in creating connections and then getting future opportunities to coach or join another team. Anders called it a “big roadblock” for women coaches looking to break into coaching at the top level.

WHILE CELEBRATING THE 50th anniversary of the formation of the WTA at Wimbledon in 2023, Billie Jean King turned her famed advocacy toward the lack of women coaches in the sport. That year, there were just six players in the event’s main draw working with a female coach.

“Terrible. Extremely disappointing,” King told The Associated Press in an interview that garnered significant attention at the time. “It’s about society, absolutely. You have to see it to be it. So if you don’t see a woman up there as a coach, it doesn’t even cross your brain. How do we get the top players to hire them? We’ve got to solve the problem.”

But the WTA was already keenly aware of the issue. Not only was it apparent in the lack of women in player boxes, former players routinely would complain about how hard it was to break into coaching despite their own impressive resumes. And it became crystal clear when the WTA started a coaching program in 2017, primarily to ensure coaches were qualified and met certain criteria, and the organization was able to see the raw numbers for themselves.

Looking to address the problem head-on, the WTA launched the Coach Inclusion program in 2021, an ambitious initiative geared towards increasing the number of women coaches. At the time there were just four women coaches working with players in the top 200.

“The intent around the program was really to remove that barrier of access that we were seeing,” Anders, who runs the program, told ESPN. “Tennis is a pretty small world and the program essentially combines targeted coach education, with the real-life experience of them actually being placed in the environment, as well as fostering mentorships and making connections.”

During its first year, the program worked with 10 up-and-coming coaches in North America. Since then, 34 women have successfully completed the program, and it has expanded to the Asia-Pacific region, as well as South America and the United Kingdom, with hopes of expanding to the rest of Europe and the Middle East in the coming years. There are spots for a total of 20 women across all of the regions this year.

The ATP has a coaching program but confirmed to ESPN it does not have anything specifically focused on increasing the number of women coaches. Women coaching men’s tennis players remains rare, although Pratt previously coached Marc Polmans and Amelie Mauresmo, now the French Open tournament director, worked with Andy Murray for nearly two years, and later with Lucas Pouille.

The WTA program takes coaches to tournaments in their respective region and attempts to immerse them in the full coaching experience, working with players and their teams, learning the ins-and-outs of tournament logistics and meeting as many people as possible.

Coaches like Zaniewska and Pratt are often involved and allow those in the program to shadow them when possible. Because every tournament on tour is different — and what might sound like mundane aspects like booking practice courts or scheduling transportation to-and-from site can vary radically from event to event — getting a chance to learn from a seasoned coach, or just understanding who to ask in the future, can make all the difference.

“We had one participant in the program who was coaching a top 100 player for a bit before she even entered the program and she said she had felt so uncomfortable and out of place because she didn’t know who to go to when her player wanted her to arrange practices with other coaches or asked her questions about media requirements,” Anders said. “Her player expected her to know all of that and take care of it. But by just getting the experience over the course of a year, she got hired immediately after completing the program and then just knew so many people who could help her and it made her feel like she now belonged.”

At the Italian Open last month, the most recent event in which the WTA has confirmed data, there were 169 accredited coaches between the main draw and qualifying, and 26 of them (just over 15%) were women. In the WTA’s Tour Coach program — the one launched in 2017 that features some, but not all, of the current coaches — 24 of the 125 registered coaches (just over 19%) are women. While still far from equal, Anders is encouraged by the progress.

The program also boasts a number of success stories. Anders believes five women who have come through the program have gone on to be their home country’s Billie Jean King Cup captain and others have gone to become coaches on the WTA Tour, including Fanni Varga, who was just named Danielle Collins’ coach ahead of Indian Wells in March. Varga, a former junior player from Hungary who played at Division II Southwest Baptist University, had never considered a coaching career. With plans on pursuing something in finance after earning her Masters, one summer internship spent exclusively in front of a computer and several conversations with her college coach made her change her mind.

When John Bryant retired after 51 years, Varga was tapped to be the head coach for both the men’s and women’s teams at Southwest Baptist. In her four years in the role, she led the men’s team to an NCAA tournament Elite 8 appearance and the women’s team to a program-high ranking of No. 7. Varga fell in love with coaching — and knew she could do even more and continue to improve.

She was encouraged by those closest to her to apply for the Coach Inclusion program. Varga was excited to make more connections but also felt strongly about the need for more women coaches in the sport.

“It was very important to me because I had a very bad experience,” Varga shared with ESPN. “I had a very good female coach until I was 14, and a great experience with her, and then I unfortunately had really bad male coaches the rest of my junior years. They didn’t listen to me when I was injured and told me to stop complaining and overpushed me. So having this initiative to help become a better coach for other girls, younger girls who are trying to become professional, was a big inspiration for me.”

Varga, 32, wasn’t sure if she wanted to coach at the professional level, but being around the tour as part of the program was a “great eye-opener” for her. She realized it worked well with her “super competitive” nature and desire to help players be the best they could be. She estimates she was able to speak to over 20 coaches during her time in the program, and it only further fueled her desire and passion.

“We had the best time,” Varga said. “We shared a lot of experiences, similar goals, similar experiences. At the tournaments we would meet up at dinner, share what we learned, what we saw, what we experienced, and that multiplies the knowledge you get in one week. Everyone was there with the same goals, and honestly I miss those weeks a little bit.”

Varga, who is based in Los Angeles, met up with Collins for the first time the week before Indian Wells began in March. After a strong practice week together, and despite an early exit in the tournament, Collins asked Varga if she would continue working with her. Varga is currently planning on remaining full time with Collins through Wimbledon in July before resuming her responsibilities at the Tier 1 tennis academy. She hopes to join Collins for part of the North American hard-court swing in some capacity, however.

During one of Varga’s first practice sessions with Collins, the two practiced alongside Robin Montgomery and her coach Kathy Rinaldi. For Varga it was a full-circle moment: Rinaldi was one of the coaches she had a chance to speak to during the program — and the one who had perhaps inspired her the most. Rinaldi’s primary job is the head of women’s tennis at the USTA and the USTA is one of the federations heavily involved with the Coach Inclusion program.

In addition to continuing that partnership, the USTA says it is equally committed to making coaching more inclusive, starting at the grassroots level. It is launching its own coaching program later this summer with a focus on increasing the number of women and people of color in the role. Megan Rose, the USTA’s Managing Director and Head of Business Development and Operations and a former player and coach, is in charge of the new initiative and believes it will make the sport better and further grow the game in the United States.

“Having diverse representation (of coaches),” Rose told ESPN, “Not just of women, but people of color and those that have a disability, really being able to have an appropriate representation of the player base that we want to also grow to get to 35 million. It’s not just about visibility, but it’s about validation. For young girls to see coaches in these examples lets them know that there is a pathway for them, and for women, college tennis players, showing them that there is a pathway not just for coaching, but also leadership within tennis in general and within different organizations that are in sport.”

Rose said the organization has tried to identify what obstacles prevent or slow the increase of women in coaching, in hopes of specifically helping in those areas. She said motherhood was a clear barrier, citing the amount of time and travel required in the job at the higher levels, and the need to develop creative solutions.

“We’ve been thinking a lot about how we can work with facilities on creating the right structure that supports moms coming back,” Rose said.

That’s a struggle those currently on tour face regularly. Pratt has 10-year-old twin daughters back home in Australia. Being so far away for weeks, and sometimes months, at a time can be challenging.

“It can be lonely for sure,” Pratt said. “Especially when you’re on the opposite side of the world, away from your family. I tried to set a bit of a rule for myself that I wouldn’t be away for more than three weeks on tour, but obviously that gets stretched.”

A camaraderie exists among the women coaches on tour. There’s a group chat used to share resources, ask questions, organize practices between players, and even brainstorm ideas. Often discussed among the women is how to address the hitting partner inequity. Pratt said she and Martinez were discussing it at a recent clay tournament in Europe.

“I said to Conchi, ‘You know what would make a real difference for female coaches? If the tournament provided hitting partners specifically allocated to us,'” Pratt said of the conversation. “There aren’t many of us at this point, so if we had that option, the players would actually look at (hiring a woman) differently potentially. There are still barriers, but there are solutions too.”

For now, the number of women coaches remains low, but it is slowly rising. Some younger players, including 18-year-old Victoria Mboko, who made it through qualifying to the third round at Roland Garros, see a benefit of working with a woman as a coach.

“Of course, having a female there, you relate a lot more,” Mboko, who is coached by former world No. 3 Nathalie Tauziat, said last week. “I mean, they know more (about) the women’s game. They know the struggles that a woman can go through on tour. In that aspect it could be a little bit easier to try to understand some things that a man cannot.”

But there is still an extra burden on those who have the job, knowing they often represent more than just themselves. But there is a strong desire to open doors for others and make the path a little easier for the next generation.

While speaking to ESPN, Zaniewska was told of the coach Anders mentioned who was intimidated by the logistics of life on tour. She vowed to text Anders and offer her help if other women coaches had similar questions.

“Because you don’t want those things to derail you in a way,” she said. “Something like this can shatter your confidence and bury you. I have no control over how many female coaches are on tour or how many female coaches there will be. I can only do my small part in this. We have to help each other.”