Simona Halep news: Former world No 1 has no intentions of finding a replacement coach

Tennis News
Simona Halep in action

Two time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep has announced that she intends to go solo on tour without the help of a coach following the recent split with her training team.

The Romanian was working with Daniel Dobre, who helped her win the Wimbledon title in 2019 and coached her throughout the pandemic, and Adrian Marcu who was rehired after she used to work with him in 2013 following her parting of ways with Darren Cahill in September last year.

The world No 22 made this announcement but then didn’t follow it up with who she was going to hire next, instead revealing that she wasn’t looking at a replacement despite her being linked with Iga Swiatek’s former trainer Piotr Sierzputowski.

“I do not have a coach, I haven’t talked to any coach these days, and at the moment I don’t want to take a coach,” the 2018 French Open winner told Treizecizero.

“I didn’t break up with Mr Marcu and Mr Dobre to start with someone else, that’s the idea – it’s a time when I want to take responsibility, to strengthen myself as a person and I also want to experiment, let me see how much I can do on my own.

“I have a lot of advice left to me from all the coaches I’ve worked with, especially from my six years with Darren, I have a lot of ideas and now they all seem to come, especially when you are relaxed and you don’t feel the pressure of the team.”

Halep is set to train at the Patrick Mouratoglou Academy in the French Riviera before she travels to Doha and Dubai for upcoming WTA Tour competitions, but even though she’s insisted she isn’t looking for a coach at this moment in time, she has stayed in close contact with former coach Cahill who trained with her for six years.

“I will go to Mouratoglou to train again, I really want to go because I’ve never been to an academy before, even when I was little I wasn’t very fond of academia, but now I really want to try something else because I know it’s a high level there with a lot of top players,” the 30-year-old explained.

“Why our (coaching relationship with Cahill) lasted so long was because he understood me so well, he was also a psychologist not just a coach, he taught me other things besides tennis so I could become more open, talk to people, be more relaxed.

“We talk almost every day, we are friends and he also gives me advice if I need it.”

The 2018 Australian Open semi finalist has had a great start to the season so far, she won the Melbourne Summer Set to add to her tally of 23 WTA titles and she made it to the round of 16 at the ‘Happy Slam’.

She is due to play at the Dubai Tennis Championships which kick off from February 14, and then the Qatar Open which takes place from February 20.

Simona Halep

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