Simona Halep opens up about split from coach Wim Fissette
After announcing her surprising decision split with coach Wim Fissette last week, Simona Halep said she wanted to return to her roots and hire a Romanian coach for the 2015 season.
TikiTaka.ro has the translation of her comments:
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 (note: Daniel Dobre is the speculated name in the Romanian press). 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 teamed up with Fisette, a Belgian who formerly coached Kim Clijsters and Sabine Lisicki, before the 2014 Australian Open. Together, Halep ticked off career-milestone after career-milestone. She won two titles, reached a career-high No. 2, made her first Slam final at the French Open, followed that up with her first Wimbledon semifinal, and finished the season by qualifying for the WTA Finals for the first time and beating No. 1 Serena Williams. She finished the season at No. 3. Halep foreshadowed the split at the Finals in Singapore, telling Romanian reporters that she would make a decision regarding her coaching situation when she returned to Romania.
(h/t @AlecsStam)
