Rainer Schüttler succeeds Wim Fissette as coach of Angelique Kerber. The choice may be surprising, but there are some points of contact between the Wimbledon winner and the ex-pro.
When Aljoscha married Thron a few weeks ago, there were also two prominent tennis guests at the big wedding party. Of course Angelique Kerber, the Wimbledon champion who manages Thron. But also Rainer Schüttler (42), the former Top Ten player and Australian Open finalist, who had come from Switzerland to Hesse with his wife Jovana.
Kerber and Schüttler are said to have had a lively conversation on that day, the Kielerin had probably already made the decision at that time to part with her Belgian trainer Wim Fissette; the duo’s relationship was too shattered.
Now, on Tuesday evening, what had been rumoured in the last few days to be wavering through the tennis scene quickly became official: Kerber and Schüttler, the two wedding guests, will soon form a couple. The former world number five will become the new coach of the three-time Grand Slam winner and temporary number one in the women’s tennis hierarchy, as manager Thron confirmed.
It is a sporting alliance between two actors, which is obvious in many ways: Kerber and Schüttler resemble each other in their unagitated, withdrawn, also unpretentious way, they rather let actions speak than words in case of doubt. “I look forward to working with you in this exciting phase of your career. There is no question in my mind that she can still achieve a lot with her talent,” explained Schüttler in a press release from Kerber management.
The network of relationships between the participants has always been close: Kerber manager Thron once apprenticed to shaker manager Dirk Hordorff, so to speak, and at that time he occasionally worked for the then Hordorff client Kerber. Anyone visiting Throne’s office today will find what they are looking for in downtown Bad Homburg – in a residential and commercial building in which Hordorff and his family reside and also run a real estate business.
Next week, at a meeting on Wednesday in Cologne, Schüttler and Kerber will explain the new alliance and his plans for the coaching work. After his active career, Schüttler had not allowed himself a long rest and absence from the big tennis business. Together with the ingenious Romanian Ion Tiriac, he managed the Geneva ATP tournament, the licence for which came from the Düsseldorf Rochusclub.
But Schüttler, now the father of a two-year-old son, was again inexorably drawn out into the wide world of tennis. “The tour just won’t let you go,” said Schüttler during the US Open, where he trained Canadian Vasek Pospisil as he had in the months before and after. At times Schüttler had also coached his later brother-in-law Tipsarevic. On the women’s WTA tour, however, he has not yet gained any experience.
Kerber, who had been eliminated in the preliminary round of the WTA season finale in Singapore, recently greeted her Internet community with holiday photos from the Maldives. A few days longer, the 30-year-old will enjoy her holidays before the new chapter with shakers begins in the Polish home town of her grandparents, Puszczykowo, at the beginning of December – he will then also be the first companion to have the experience from a great tennis career.
The first major test is not far away – the Australian Open in mid-January. Where Kerber won her first Grand Slam title ever in 2016. And where Schüttler was the only German men’s player to reach a Grand Slam game after Becker and Stich in 2003, he lost it to Andre Agassi.