"I'm happy to announce that Wim Fissette is joining our team," Swiatek posted on social media. "As you know, I'm preparing for the WTA Finals but my perspective is, as always, long-term, not short-term. I said many times that my career is a marathon for me, not a sprint and I'm working, operating and making decisions with this approach.
"I want to say that I'm very excited and looking forward to working with Wim. He seems to have a great attitude, vision and huge experience at a very top level of tennis. It's always crucial to try and get to know each other better but we're off to a good start and I can't wait to compete soon."
The news comes two weeks after the end of her three-year partnership with Tomasz Wiktorowski, with whom she had worked since the end of 2021 -- a period during which Swiatek won fiour of her five Grand Slam titles and ascended to World No.1 for the first time. Prior to Wiktorowski, Swiatek had been coached by Piotr Sierzputowski since 2016. Fissette will be her first non-Polish coach.
Swiatek will be the sixth sometime World No.1 player Fissette has coached. The 44-year-old Belgian has previously had stints with Kim Clijsters, Simona Halep, Victoria Azarenka, Angelique Kerber and Naomi Osaka. Fissette has coached Osaka in matches against Swiatek twice -- in the 2022 Miami final, which Osaka lost 6-4, 6-0; and in the Roland Garros second round this year, which Osaka lost 7-6(1), 1-6, 7-5 from match point up. Osaka announced the end of their four-year collaboration in September.
Swiatek has not competed since her quarterfinal loss to Jessica Pegula at the US Open, and her World No.1 ranking will be under threat from Aryna Sabalenka in the coming weeks.
Well Wim was indeed the top choice. Makes perfect sense. 1 He was available having just split with Osaka. 2 He has so much experience working with world #1s and his calm temperament really fits the Iga team vibe.
I really think he'll help Iga develop her skills as a player, make her use all the tools in her tool box and not be afraid to come to the net.
Obviously big changes are not something that will happen over night, but I'm genuinely excited to see them work together at the WTA Finals in a few short weeks.
And speaking of the WTA Finals it now seems that Iga will literally have to win every single match in order to take back the number one ranking (and Saba would have to lose 1 or 2).
Even then it may not be enough and it's very likely Saba will keep the #1 ranking into next year.
Oh yeah, I'm posting this a bit late so Sabalenka is now officially the new world number one again as of this week.
Thanks to probably the dumbest change in the ranking system in the sports history.
A system that apparently penalizes a player for not losing badly enough in the mandatory 500 events (of which there are now unnecessarily 6 of), or something along those lines.
Seriously the fact that the WTA had to release an article explaining it is evidence in itself.
We went from 12 mandatory tournaments to 20 in one year and extended quite a few by 2 weeks. And this is how the ranking is calculated?.
Your least bad mandatory event result?.
Absolutely ridiculous.
I really hope it is corrected in the very near future, or literally no one will be able to understand how it works much less be able to follow it.
However this season ends for Iga I just honestly cannot wait to see her back on court again. I just want to see her healthy, happy and thriving in a sport she loves and is so damn good at.
The tour is simply not the same without her around.
No comments:
Post a Comment