Industry leader Simona Halep and her ex-coach Darren Cahill have proven that the end of a professional relationship does not always mean the end of a friendship.
At the beginning of December Darren Cahill announced that he would give up his job alongside the Romanian to devote himself to his family in the coming year. You never expected there’d be bad blood. No, not at all.
Halep and the Australian, one of the most respected tennis coaches ever, even decided to go skiing with some family members. Which says a lot about their unwavering bond. And what is anything but taken for granted in the professional circuit.
In the Austrian mountains the wildly assembled team spent some relaxed days. And Halep sent a message out of the snow paradise into the world: “Winning is important, but friendships are for eternity,” the French Open winner posted to Instagram and added a photo of her and Cahill standing thickly wrapped in front of a mountain backdrop.
It is quite possible that Cahill will join “Team Simo” again in the 2020 season. The world number one in any case announced a few days ago that she wanted to start the year without a new coach. “I’ve thought about it and won’t have a coach in the near future,” Halep recently told Romanian media, announcing, “I want to do some tournaments on my own and then see how it goes,” he said.
The first big test awaits the 27-year-old at the Australian Open (starting 13 January). In January 2018 she had lost the final of Melbourne in three sets and after 2:49 hours against Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark). About four months later, Halep’s dream of the first and redeeming major triumph came true: in Paris.
The Romanian from Constanta had had to cancel her participation in the WTA finals in Singapore in October due to a herniated disc. Nevertheless, she finished the year number one in the world for the second time in a row.