Women’s tennis tour opens program to attract female coaches

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — The women’s professional tennis tour is starting a program it hopes will lead to more female coaches in the sport. The WTA Tour’s Coach Inclusion Program was unveiled Thursday. It includes three phases: a week of offseason training with players in December; a 10-week online certification course; shadowing a coach and player during a tournament. There currently are five women who are private coaches employed by singles players ranked in the top 150, according to the WTA. That doesn’t include women employed by national federations who might work with multiple athletes and mainly oversee player development.