Coach reveals former No 1 that would have been ‘super interesting project’ – and the key to beating Serena Williams
Legendary coach Wim Fissette revealed he would have found it “super interesting” to work with Maria Sharapova, as he also discussed the key to beating Serena Williams during her career.
Currently working with Naomi Osaka, Belgium’s Fissette is one of the most decorated coaches in the modern game.
As well as guiding the Japanese star to two Grand Slam titles, he also helped Kim Clijsters and Angelique Kerber win major titles and coached Simona Halep and Sabine Lisicki to major finals.
Fissette has also worked with the likes of Victoria Azarenka but, speaking on the Australian Open’s The Sit-Down podcast, he revealed that he would have loved to work with five-time Slam winner Sharapova as well.
He said: “My dream is to actually coach – or I thought the highest possible I could achieve for to coach – was Maria Sharapova.
“She was such an interesting player. She was also like an unbelievable good player. But yeah, I felt like I would have been super excited to coach her and to try to make her a better player … especially in the last five or six years of her career.
“That would have been a super interesting project for myself and I think I could have been a valuable coach for her.”
Wissette is one of the few coaches to have had repeated success against the 23-time Grand Slam champion, with six players defeating the American under his guidance.
Dream player to coach? @MariaSharapova
Always a pleasure chatting with @wimfissette https://t.co/Q6r3CarVU1 pic.twitter.com/XH5yKzRSdX
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) May 6, 2024
And he revealed that the key to beating Williams was to make her uncomfortable in the closing stages of matches, and mentally be strong enough to take advantage of when she dipped.
“Serena, I mean obviously … the best female player of all time. I have so much respect for her,” added the Belgian.
“If you would just stay mentally like believing that there was always kind of a window where she was like going down a bit (with her) level and that was I felt that was always the moment that you needed to do be ready for.
“And because she won so many matches easily, she was also not too comfortable when it would go to a five-all or a six-all level because it was like she was not experiencing that a lot.”
Fissette rejoined Naomi Osaka’s team towards the end of 2023 when the Japanese ace began preparing for her WTA return after welcoming her first child.
Osaka will be in Italian Open action this week, facing Clara Burel in her opening match.
