Simona Halep's former coach cited boredom as the reason she split with him, despite climbing to No. 2 in the world rankings of women's tennis.
Tennisnow.com interviewed Wim Fissette, who worked with the Romanian star, guiding her from a No. 10 ranking at the beginning of 2014 to No. 2 in the fall. She finished the season at No. 3, behind only No. 1 Serena Williams and No. 2 Maria Sharapova.
Simona Halep gives coach the heave-ho
Halep said she wanted to work with a Romanian coach because she felt more comfortable communicating in her own language and hired Victor Ionita - she also has brought in former Maria Sharapova coach Thomas Hogstedt as a consultant -- as reported by Tennis.com.
Fissette confirmed to tennisnow.com that the language barrier between Halep and him - Fissette is Belgian - was an issue.
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"For Simona it was a completely new experience, as she only worked with Romanian coaches in the past," Fissett told Tennisnow.com. "For sure it was not always an easy relationship between player and coach. You spend a lot of time together and one very important thing is that the player feels very comfortable also off court. For example, it's much easier when you can always speak your own language."
But it wasn't the only issue.
"Simona made this decision because she feels more comfortable with only Romanians in her team," Fissette added. "She is a girl who needs a lot of variation. That's why, for example, every tournament there were some family members to "entertain" her. Some weeks it was her mother, some weeks her brother, some weeks some family friends ... so she would not be bored. She likes people around her and she also needs that. I believe it will be difficult for her to work longer than one year with a coach because she needs that variation [in her life]. Other way of thinking, other way of working. ..."
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