Johanna Konta hunting for new coach after surprise split with Wim Fissette
Johanna Konta has split with her coach Wim Fissette, bringing to a surprise conclusion a successful partnership that seems to have unravelled since she made the Wimbledon semi-finals in June.
Konta, 26, who has slipped from No7 in the world to No10 in recent weeks, falling agonisingly short of qualification for the WTA Finals for the second year in a row, said on Wednesday: “After careful thought and discussion, Wim and I have mutually decided to end our working relationship.”
Wissette later tweeted: “Sharing the news that Johanna and I decided to part ways. I wanna thank her for this great season and wish her all the best in the future!”
The split came as a shock to most observers because the chemistry between the emotional player and the rock-solid calm coach seemed ideal. In her best season, Konta won two titles and earned $2.7m in prize money, nearly half of the $5.9m she has banked in nine years on the Tour.
The experienced Belgian, who has coached Kim Clijsters and Simona Halep, has been central to the latter stages of Konta’s rise to the game’s elite since they began working together at the start of 2017. She fell early at Roland Garros but Fissette then guided her through a brilliant Wimbledon campaign.
Playing with vigour and confidence during the fortnight, Konta defeated Caroline Garcia – the rising French player who has displaced her in the WTA’s end of-season tournament, which starts on Monday in Singapore – and Halep, the current world No1, before losing against the rejuvenated Venus Williams in the semi-finals.
Fissette remarked during the run: “I think she’s winning a lot of matches with mental strength. That’s a result of her hard work over the past years, to be able to stay strong in these situations.” That self-belief has obviously ebbed.
Since Wimbledon, Konta has had
a patchy run. She lost against the world No42 Ekaterina Makarova in her first match in Toronto, reached the Cincinnati quarter finals, lost in the first round of the US Open against the world No78 Aleksandra Krunic, then went on a depressing stretch of defeats against lesserranked opponents: Barbara Strycova (25), Ashleigh Barty (37) and Monica Niculescu (65).
Konta, who has now ended her season after struggling with a foot injury, said: “Things ended very amicably and I wish Wim all the best. We’ve achieved a lot together and I want to thank him for all his patience, hard work and expertise.
“I will be working with my team over the coming weeks to find the right way forward for me and my tennis. The goal is to get a new coach or coaches in place as soon as possible, but the focus will be on making the right decision rather than a quick decision.
“My hitting partner Andrew Fitzpatrick, my strength and conditioning specialist Gill Myburgh, my
physio Milly Mirkovic and my mental
coach Elena Sosa will continue to
support me. I feel very excited and optimistic about the future and very committed to improving and becoming the best tennis player that I can be.
“My foot is improving but it is still advisable to rest it further so, unfortunately, I will not be travelling to Singapore or to the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai [where she made the semifinals last year]. Both are amazing events and I will really miss being part of them but I want to make sure that I am fully fit to start preparations for what I hope will be an exciting 2018 season.”
Coaching jobs are notoriously precarious, especially on the women’s Tour, but Konta seemed to have reached an encouraging level of contentment with Fissette, quelling the nerves that had plagued her early career. A string of unexpected defeats – exacerbated, no doubt, by her foot injury – looked to have drained her confidence.
Konta will hope that a long break before resuming in the new year with a revived team will give her the sort of lift that Fissette provided at the start of this season.