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Iga Swiatek - Cincinnati Open 2024, Naomi Osaka - Roland Garros 2024

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Iga Swiatek announces that she has hired Naomi Osaka’s former coach

Matthew Johns
Matthew Johns
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Iga Swiatek has announced that she will be working with Grand Slam winning coach Wim Fissette, with the World No.1 explaining that she is thinking ‘long-term’.Swiatek has not competed since losing in the US Open quarter-finals to Jessica Pegula, having recently withdrawn from tournaments in Seoul, Beijing and Wuhan. The Pole has also made a major change to her setup in that time, after announcing that she was parting ways with her coach of three years Tomasz Wiktorowski. Wiktorowski helped Swiatek win four of her five Grand Slam titles, and was by her side for 123 weeks as she led the
WTA rankings.
Following this announcement, there was much speculation over who Swiatek’s next coach would be, with the five-time Grand Slam champion hinting that she was looking for someone not from her homeland. And now Swiatek has revealed that Fissette, who is Belgian, will be part of her team for the foreseeable future in a statement on social media. “I’m happy to announce that Wim Fissette is joining our team,” said Swiatek on X (formerly known as Twitter). “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.” The 23-year-old continued, “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.”
Fissette has worked with many top WTA pros over the years, including Kim Clijsters, Simona Halep, Petra Kvitova, Angelique Kerber, Victoria Azarenka, Naomi Osaka and Qinwen Zheng. During his time as a coach, Fisette has helped players to six Grand Slam titles including the aforementioned Osaka, who he recently split with after their second spell together. Swiatek and Fissette will begin their partnership together at none other than the year-end WTA Finals in Riyadh next month, with the Olympic bronze medallists status as No.1 hanging on by a thread.
Inside the baseline…Iga Swiatek was always going to make a sensible judgement when it came to a decision like this, and Wim Fissette seems like a clever choice given his track record. It will be also interesting to see how Fissette fits in with the rest of Swiatek’s team dynamic, and there will be little time to settle in given that their first tournament together is against the seven other best players from the year at the WTA Finals.
READ MORE: Iga Swiatek’s former coach hits out at ‘fake news’ following split
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