Pavel Kotov, who made his debut on the ATP circuit in 2020, has emerged as one of the sport’s most promising young players. With his brilliant prowess on the court, the Russian tennis star recently attained the number 56 ranking this season. However, Kotov’s stellar success on the men’s tour isn’t the fruit of his labor alone.

Toiling behind the current number 56 player has been his mother, Liliya Kotova, who has taken up the coaching duties for him. Even though she doesn’t have a background in the racket game, Pavel’s mother has been helping her tennis star son with “all the stuff” on the court.  The ATP player said, “She helps me a lot with all the stuff out of the court.” From stringing his rackets to the laundry, Liliya has gone above and beyond to support Pavel in pursuing his tennis dream.

Kotov’s mom regripping mid-match versus Wawrinka 🥹🥹🥹 Shout out to all tennis moms and dads 💗🎾
byu/boypaganini intennis

“It’s a lot of different things, let’s start from stringing racquets to the laundry to, I don’t know, maybe lunch, dinner, breakfast,” the Russian player said. Even during his recent second-round victory against Stan Wawrinka at the French Open, Pavel’s mom was sighted regripping his rackets mid-match. As she has made a number of appearances in her son’s player’s box, Liliya once also had to face the wrath of the tennis star. During a tense match, he once yelled at her mom but later went ahead and apologized to her.

“If you’re that interested, I apologized to my mom as soon as I left the court,” the Russian said in his post-match conference. Apart from his mother, another member, Mikhail Bril, is also a part of Pavel’s coaching team.

Pavel Kotov is under the tutelage of two tennis coaches

Mikhail Bril has also donned the coach’s hat for the Russian player, who recently pulled off a spectacular performance against 3-time singles Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka at the French Open. Under the tutelage of his two tennis coaches, Pavel Kotov has now secured a place in the third round after defeating his Swiss opponent with a score of 7-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6. After his brilliant win in Paris, Bril recently took to social media to laud the ATP player.

He said, “You become what you think. The obstacle is the way. Great win for @_kotov_pavel_ against true legend @stanwawrinka85 in the most difficult conditions that we ever had in our experience!” After outclassing the former Roland Garros champion, Kotov will now square off against the second-seeded Italian, Jannik Sinner in the third round. Who do you think will come out on top in this match between Sinner and Kotov? Let us know in the comments section.