Angelique Kerber surprisingly separated from her coach Wim Fissette after only eleven months. According to tennisnet information, this is due to contrary views on future planning.
By Ulrike Weinrich
Wim Fissette succeeded Torben Beltz in November 2017 and led Kerber to the Wimbledon victory in July and back into the top 3 of the world rankings. He will also no longer travel with Kerber to the WTA finals in Singapore (from Sunday), as the broken relationship of trust no longer permits this. Kerber is already on site after a flight via Bangkok.
Fissette’s successes with his previous charges are impressive, but apart from his Belgian compatriot Kim Clijsters (2009 to 2011), whom he led to two US Open titles among other things, the Belgian has not yet taken care of a single player on a long-term basis.
In 2013 Fissette trained Sabine Lisicki and led her to the Wimbledon final. In 2014 he supervised Simona Halep, from 2015 to 2016 Victoria Azarenka, 2016 Sara Errani and until October 2017 Johanna Konta.
Immediately after Kerber’s Wimbledon triumph in the grass court Mecca on the time-honoured Church Road, Fissette, the dominant and straightforward coach, said of the 30-year-old: “I think she wants even more. An Angie with confidence is hard to beat, and we haven’t seen the best Angie yet.”
The rather introverted Fissette had helped Kerber to find her way back to success after her 2017 year of abortion. He brought Dutch fitness coach Rob Brandsma into the team and made technical changes to the Kieler’s serve, among other things.
With success: At her first WTA tournament of the season in Sydney, Kerber won the title and reached the semi-finals at the following Australian Open, where she lost two match points against Simona Halep.
The previous Kerber yield of 45 victories (17 defeats) this year is impressive. The Wimbledon Coup at the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) outshined everything when the left-hander defeated Serena Williams 6-3, 6-3 on a sunny Saturday afternoon in London and made herself immortal.
The successful team back then, it’s been history since Monday.