Coaching in the Bigs: Diego Moyano keeps Kevin Anderson aiming higher

After ten successful years of grooming and mentoring America’s finest young tennis players, former USTA Player Development coach Diego Moyano joined Kevin Anderson’s team to start the 2020 season.

On Coaching in the Bigs, Paul Annacone caught up with his longtime friend to discuss Anderson’s future, and what they miss most about the ATP Tour.

“The first several weeks we respected the quarantine and didn’t train,” Moyano said. “Kevin built a gym in his garage. About two weeks ago we started training on a private court.”

One of the most respected coaches in the business, Moyano was practically the American junior tennis whisperer. During his time with the USTA, Moyano was tasked with helping top U.S. juniors in their transition to the professional game. He certainly delivered, having worked closely with the majority of the nation's most promising talents, including Reilly Opelka, Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Mackenzie McDonald, Tennys Sandgren and Denis Kudla.

Anderson has long been one of the most professional players on tour. You can bet he is using the down time to strengthen his surgically repaired right knee, and fine tune a seemingly ever-improving game.

“You have to train right now for the love of sport because we don’t know when we’ll play again,” Moyano added. “Kevin knows he can play several more years, he feels he has room for improvement and can still play his best tennis. He’s always challenging us as a team.”

While Annacone isn’t subjecting himself to pro tennis’ rigorous travel schedule anymore, he and Moyano’s friendship developed on the traveling family circus that is the ATP Tour, something they both miss dearly.

“I miss the majors,” Moyano said, “I was about to cry when Wimbledon announced the cancellation. We always complain about the travel and the planes, but I miss it.”

“This is a moment we all have to take a deep breath and try reset ourselves,” Annacone responded, “it’s really very complicated and hard to do, but stay safe and we’ll see each other out on the tour soon.”