David Witt, the coach of U.S. No. 1 Jessica Pegula, has been named the 2022 WTA Coach of the Year.
The WTA's annual Coach of the Year honor "recognizes the winning coach for success on the court, but also for serving as an ambassador of the sport and bringing coaching to the forefront of the game."
Witt won the award by a vote of his peers over world No. 1 Iga Swiatek's coach Tomasz Wiktorowski; Daria Kasatkina's Carlos Martinez; Ons Jabeur's coach Issam Jellali; Caroline Garcia's coach Bertrand Perret; Coco Gauff's co-coaches Corey Gauff and Diego Moyano; WTA Most Improved Player of the Year Beatriz Haddad Maia's coach Rafael Paciaroni; and Maria Sakkari's coach Tom Hill.
Pegula started the year at No. 18 and rose to a career-best No. 3 in 2022, as she reached the quarterfinals of three of the four Grand Slams; won her first WTA 1000 title in Guadalajara, Mexico, and also finished runner-up at another WTA 1000, the Mutua Madrid Open; and won five doubles titles (three with fellow American Coco Gauff). She qualified for the season-ending WTA Finals in Fort Worth, Texas for the first time, in both disciplines.
Pegula's best Grand Slam efforts were notably only stopped by the eventual champion: She lost to Ashleigh Barty in Australia, and to Swiatek at both Roland Garros and the US Open. After reaching the final eight at Roland Garros, Pegula broke into the WTA's Top 10 for the first time on June 6, and her US Open quarterfinal propelled her into the Top 5 (No. 5) on Sept. 12.
Pegula went 42-21 in singles in 2022. Her 42 wins tied for fifth-best this year with Belinda Bencic, behind Swiatek's 67, Jabeur's 47, Haddad Maia's 46, and Garcia's 44.
Pegula and Gauff won the doubles titles in Doha, Toronto and San Diego, while also finishing as runners-up at Roland Garros. Additionally, Pegula and Asia Muhammad partnered to win the Melbourne Summer Set 1 in January, and she teamed with New Zealand's Erin Routliffe to win the Citi Open in July. She reached a career-high doubles ranking of No. 3 in October, and ended the season ranked No. 6. Pegula was just one of three players, along with Gauff and Veronika Kudermetova, to finished the year in the Top 10 of both singles and doubles.
Witt was previously a longtime hitting partner for Venus Williams, and he and Pegula first joined forces in 2019. The WTA Coach of the Year award has been given since 2018, and Witt is the first American to win the honor.
He joins Sascha Bajin (then with Naomi Osaka, 2018), Craig Tyzzer (Barty, 2019), Piotr Sierzputowski (Swiatek, 2020) and Conchita Martínez (Garbiñe Muguruza, 2021) as winners of the award.
Pegula was also nominated for WTA Player of the Year, but fell short to No. 1 Swiatek in a vote of international tennis media. Gauff and Pegula were also on the shortlist for WTA Doubles Team of the Year, an award that was ultimately won by Czechs Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova.
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