World number three Simona Halep explained her surprising decision to end her coaching partnership with Belgian coach Wim Fissette a week ago. Halep said in an in interview that she’s planning to hire a Romanian coach in time for the 2015 season.
Here are her thoughts as translated from TikiTaka.ro website
It was a very good year, Wim helped me a lot, we had good results together. I wish him success, I want when we will meet at tournaments to be like before, to remain friends because I don’t have anything negative to say about him. I have texted him and thanked him but he didn’t reply yet.
About my next coach…first of all, I want to clarify a thing. I consider myself 100% a product of the Romanian tennis because until February this year I was coached only by Romanians. Definitely my next coach will be Romanian. I want to work again with a Romanian, I feel well and he have similar mentality. From what I’ve realized this year, coaches from abroad have different mentality and I like to have next to me a person who thinks almost like me.
For me, it is important at a coach to be a good pedagogue, to understand my way of being. I’m pretty picky as a player and for a coach it’s difficult sometimes. This year we didn’t talk much before the matches, I wanted to be alone, I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but I had results.
Halep hired Fisette, who used to coach Sabine Lisicki and Kim Clijsters, prior to the Australian Open 2014 tournament. The partnership paid off with Halep creating career milestones along the way, reaching a career high number two, reaching her first Grand Slam final at the French Open and a semifinal finish at the Wimbledon Championships. She also qualified for the first time at the year-end WTA Finals where she reached the final (lost to Serena Williams).
There have been speculations that she will hire Romanian Daniel Dobre.
