Poland's Iga Swiatek (R) is congratulated by Romania's Simona Halep at the end of their women's singles fourth round tennis match on Day 8 of The Roland Garros 2020 French Open tennis tournament in Paris on October 4, 2020. (Photo by MARTIN BUREAU / AFP) (Photo by MARTIN BUREAU/AFP via Getty Images)
Simona Halep fires coaches and will now go solo for future tournaments
Former World No. 1 Simona Halep has decided to fire her coaches Adrian Marcu and Daniel Dobre just days after her fourth-round exit at the 2022 Australian Open. She lost the game in three sets to Alize Cornet.
She joined hands with Romanians Adrian Marcu and Daniel Dobre last year after terminating a six-year long partnership with Australian coach Darren Cahill.
In an interview, the World No. 23 revealed that she will not be looking for another coach for the time being and wants to take sole responsibility for herself going forward.
“I confirm that I broke up with Mr. Marcu and Mr. Dobre, but I would not want to discuss why I chose that,” the World No. 23 said. “We didn’t argue. Nothing like that. We are and will remain friends. That’s how I felt it was better for me. I don’t have a coach and I’m not looking at the moment. It’s a period in which I want to take responsibility and develop as a person” Halep said.
“We didn’t argue. Nothing like that. We are and remain friends. That’s how I felt it was better for me. They know why I decided that, and that’s enough. [Via Treizecizero]
“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,” Halep said [via Treizecizero]
As a junior, Halep was coached by Ioan Stan in Constanta. She began working with Firicel Tomai in 2008. After five years, she switched coaches to Adrian Marcu, a former top 200 player. During this time, she also worked with Andrei Mlendea.
Despite having a breakthrough year with six titles in 2013, Halep left Marcu at the end of the season. She hired Wim Fissette, a former coach of Kim Clijsters, at the start of 2014. Fissette was the first coach she worked with who wasn’t Romanian. Under Fissette, Halep made her first Grand Slam final at the 2014 French Open.
She switched coaches at the end of the season to another Romanian coach, Victor Ionita, who was also a former top 200 player.
At the start of 2016, Halep began working with Darren Cahill, a former top 25 player from Australia. In three years with Cahill, Halep finished two seasons with the No. 1 ranking, reached three Grand Slam finals, and won her first Grand Slam title at the 2018 French Open.
Cahill left her team after the 2018 season to spend more time with his family. After beginning 2019 without a coach, Halep hired Romanian Daniel Dobre in March. Dobre had trained to be a coach under Gunther Bosch, the former coach of Boris Becker. With Dobre as her coach, Halep won her second Grand Slam title at 2019 Wimbledon.
Simona Halep will be back in action this month at the 2022 Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championships, a WTA 500 event commencing on February 14. She will then travel to Doha, Qatar for a WTA 1000 tournament starting on February 20.
Having been sidelined last year due to injuries, the Romanian will be competing in the Middle East for the first time since 2020. She is a two-time champion in Dubai (2015, 2020) and lifted the trophy once in Doha in 2014 and will be looking to make it her third title this year.
She had been ranked world no.1 in singles twice between 2017 and 2019, for a total of 64 weeks, which ranks eleventh in the history of the WTA rankings. Halep was the year-end No. 1 in 2017 and 2018. From 2014 through 2021, she was ranked in the top 10 for 373 consecutive weeks, the eighth-longest streak in WTA history.
During this seven-year span, she finished each year ranked no lower than No. 4. She has won 23 WTA singles titles and has finished runner-up 18 times. Halep has won two Grand Slam singles titles at the 2018 French Open and the2019 Wimbledon Championships.
Simona Halep won her first title in 16 months at Melbourne saw her jump five places to 15th in the WTA rankings but the poor outing in Australia will push Halep to train harder before her next grand slam and all the match which come along the way.
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