Wim Fissette and Iga Swiatek’s partnership: What to anticipate and the way he coaches gamers

What occurs once you pair the very best participant on the WTA Tour with one in every of its most adorned coaches?

That was the query in October, when then world No. 1 Iga Swiatek introduced on Wim Fissette as her head coach. Fissette, a cerebral 44-year-old from Belgium, is extensively thought-about one of many high coaches on the ladies’s tour after attaining a lot success with such a variety of gamers.

Fissette, who by no means cracked the highest 1,000 as a participant within the Nineties and early 2000s, has excelled as a coach ever since his first job with compatriot Kim Clijsters. At 29, he coached Clijsters when she received the 2009 U.S. Open having solely simply returned from maternity depart, and was in her nook for 3 main titles in whole.

He has since coached an all-star checklist of gamers, taking in Sabine Lisicki, Simona Halep, Victoria Azarenka (twice), Petra Kvitova, Sara Errani, Johanna Konta, Angelique Kerber, Zheng Qinwen and most not too long ago Naomi Osaka. Fissette and Osaka break up in September when she changed him with the opposite most celebrated coach on the WTA Tour, Patrick Mouratoglou.

Underneath Fissette’s steerage, Osaka received the 2020 U.S. Open and 2021 Australian Open, taking his Grand Slam whole as a coach to 6 after Kerber’s Wimbledon win of 2018. He additionally took each Lisicki (2013 Wimbledon) and Halep (2014 French Open) to their first Grand Slam finals. In 2017, he helped Konta win the WTA 1000 Miami Open and attain the Wimbledon semifinals for the primary time, attaining a career-high rating of No. 4.

His first match with Swiatek sees him tasked with defending a title and serving to to orchestrate a potential return to the highest of the world rankings after she relinquished the No. 1 slot to Aryna Sabalenka having dropped factors for lacking necessary tournaments. She opens her WTA Tour Finals marketing campaign in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia towards Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova, in a round-robin group additionally containing Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula, the latter of whom Swiatek thrashed to win final yr’s occasion in Cancun, Mexico.

Regardless of his popularity and glittering CV, Fissette has remained largely nameless, in one in every of few sports activities the place it’s potential for an elite coach to maintain a low media profile. It’s gamers who conduct post-match interviews and press conferences, not like soccer during which, whereas gamers will converse, it’s the supervisor’s opinion and emotions which can be wanted each win, draw, or defeat.

Chatting with those that have labored with Fissette and seen him function up shut, in addition to sources near Swiatek, a few of whom have spoken anonymously to guard relationships, The Athletic has taken a deeper have a look at how the Belgian operates to know probably the most thrilling teaching partnerships in current reminiscence because it strikes from the observe courts to a stadium for the primary time.

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There may be an alchemy within the coach-player relationship that makes it not all the time really easy to foretell, even with somebody as skilled and adaptable as Fissette. Gamers ceaselessly speak about their partnership with a coach in romantic phrases, making the purpose that typically you click on with somebody, typically you don’t.

And each participant wants a special sort of coach. On the Laver Cup in September, the American world No. 15 Frances Tiafoe defined his partnership with new coach David Witt, who previously labored with U.S. Open finalist Jessica Pegula and earlier than that Maria Sakkari.

“I’m undoubtedly a singular persona, particularly on this sport, and somebody must push me and maintain me accountable but in addition make it enjoyable for me,” Tiafoe stated in a information convention.

“I’m a man the place, if you happen to come at me with a drill-sergeant-type mentality, I’m going to go the opposite approach.”

“A lot is in regards to the chemistry,” Daniela Hantuchova, the previous world No 5 stated in a current telephone interview.

“I all the time felt that you would by no means inform how it could really feel with a coach till you’d labored with them for just a few months and also you understood their persona, and the way they work.

“He (Fissette) is a really spectacular coach however simply because it really works for another person doesn’t imply it would be just right for you. It’s very private.”

When Swiatek break up with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski in early October, well-placed sources inside girls’s tennis tipped Fissette to switch him, given his availability and Swiatek’s obvious willingness to tear up the system that received her 4 out of her 5 Grand Slams. Since successful a 3rd consecutive French Open in June, Swiatek’s performances and outcomes have been patchy, and he or she’s spoken just a few instances of psychological and bodily exhaustion.

After discussions and evaluation along with her workforce, Swiatek approached Fissette for talks which drew her to his keenness to be taught and develop.

“Iga was eager on working with somebody who’s open-minded, a superb chief however a workforce participant on the identical time,” a member of her workforce informed The Athletic.

“They each are very desperate to continuously work on themselves, in order that they have the same mindset. That’s why Iga believes they will get alongside properly. His nice expertise with Grand Slam champions and different gamers who had been ranked No 1 on the planet was an extra benefit.”

‘Emotional intelligence’ is a phrase that sticks to Fissette, who combines it with an appreciation for information and statistics that goes all the best way again to his first job as a coach: serving to Clijsters win the 2009 U.S. Open in solely her third match again after giving start to her daughter, Jada.

John Dolan was Clijsters’ supervisor on the time.

“Wim is a tremendous coach. Very emotionally clever, and he can adapt his persona to the participant he’s working with,” Dolan, a long-time WTA media liaison who’s now the pinnacle of media for the British Garden Tennis Affiliation, stated in an interview final month.

“He was an excellent listener, and doesn’t discuss rather a lot like some individuals. When he does say one thing it carries actual significance and during the last 15 years his teaching credentials converse for themselves.

“If you happen to’re a participant how are you going to not take heed to him?”

Understanding when to push and when to drag again is a key ability of any coach. Fissette isn’t any hype man, so when he does actually attempt to inspire his gamers, the impact is bigger. With Clijsters, at her first match again in Cincinnati, she got here to her coach with doubts about whether or not she was actually adequate to compete. In an interview with Basically Sports activities in 2018, Fissette stated he informed Clijsters that “there’s actually no person that is ready to beat you once you’re going to be at your greatest.”

Forward of her U.S. Open semifinal towards Serena Williams, a participant Clijsters had solely overwhelmed as soon as in eight conferences prior, Fissette targeted on not worrying and exploiting Williams’ weaknesses. Clijsters received 6-4, 7-5 in a match overshadowed by Williams being given a degree penalty when down match level. Fissette had earlier that season wager Clijsters that if she received the match, he would shave his head. Each did their half within the deal.

“It sounds apparent however he is aware of the right way to work with tennis gamers,” Dolan stated. “Another coaches haven’t fairly discovered that studying the participant is such an enormous a part of it and lots of coaches don’t have that. They focus an excessive amount of on themselves.”

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When Naomi Osaka started discussing who would coach her on her return to the tour after giving start, reuniting with Fissette was the apparent selection. He didn’t say sure immediately.

He pushed Osaka on how her comeback would work and why it could be completely different to earlier comebacks in 2021 and 2022 which ended prematurely. In the long run, the second version of Osaka-Fissette lasted slightly below a yr.

An official on the WTA, who requested anonymity to guard relationships, outlined Fissette’s directness.

“He’s completely not a cheerleader,” they stated.

“He’s very trustworthy, and that’s one thing some gamers aren’t used to on a regular basis. He’ll say, ‘I’ve some concepts. If you happen to’re open to that that is going to work — if you happen to’re not going to be open to criticism, then it’s not.’”

“Once you put within the effort, I ensure that to reward it, whereas nonetheless being crucial of errors,” Fissette writes on his web site.

“I’m all the time searching for methods to make you higher than the day earlier than. Be optimistic, be higher.”

Fissette undoubtedly has a ruthless streak. He joined up with Osaka in September 2023 having simply taken Zheng to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal on the U.S. Open. Zheng stated she was blindsided and heartbroken; Fissette informed The Athletic in January that he was going to cease teaching Zheng no matter Osaka. He had nothing however reward for Zheng — “a brilliant good lady” who all the time labored laborious — however stated that they didn’t click on.

Equally, in 2018, Fissette break up with Kerber in direction of the tip of what had been a really profitable yr and reunited with Azarenka shortly after. A terse assertion from Kerber on the time learn: “Wim Fissette is — with instant impact — exempted from his duties as coach of Angelique Kerber. Despite the profitable cooperation because the starting of the season, this step is important on account of variations of opinion concerning the way forward for the alignment.”

A yr earlier, Fissette and Konta break up, with the previous saying in an interview with the Occasions of London: “It was a superb match however not an ideal match. We’re sort of completely different and we see issues a bit of completely different.”

The break up was amicable with the now de rigueur posts on social media praising one another; Konta was unavailable for interview for this piece when requested by The Athletic.

Fissette’s willingness to curtail a partnership that doesn’t work — which gamers will share — stands in obvious distinction to the depth to which he’ll tailor his method to a participant’s wants. He’s “very tour-friendly,” the WTA official stated.

“He sees teaching as an artwork kind. He understands the way it works and actually cares about what he does,” they added.

Fissette would get so nervous throughout Konta’s matches that he must go for a run afterwards to unwind.

In an interview with ESPN.com in 2018, Fissette detailed the spectrum on which his gamers would perceive their very own matches, with Azarenka’s need for big quantities of information contrasting to Kerber wanting “two, three vital issues.”

This was partly a willpower of favor: Kerber’s at-times scarcely plausible means to show protection into assault was reliant on information of an opponent’s most well-liked attacking pictures and patterns, permitting her to be strategically proactive somewhat than merely reacting to the ball in entrance of her.

When he was teaching Konta, Fissette was extra prescriptive than typical. She appreciated clear messaging and so Fissette would have her recite the gameplan and some key ideas to him and herself earlier than she went on court docket. However Konta was extra lighthearted earlier than matches than a number of the gamers he’d labored with, so Fissette lent into that too. “All of us inform jokes. Everyone is completely different,” Fissette informed the Press Affiliation throughout Konta’s run to the Wimbledon semifinals in 2017.

That is true of Fissette himself, who modelled his sport on counter-punching as a participant however has since made aggression one of many key tenets of his teaching. On the best way to Kerber’s win at Wimbledon in 2018, he informed her to up her aggression greater than typical in moments the place she would really feel compelled to be protected; he used the same technique with Osaka when she got here inside a degree of knocking Swiatek out of this yr’s French Open.

“The best way you concentrate on tennis and play tennis trickles down into the way you coach and the way you play tennis,” Filip Dewulf stated in a telephone interview earlier this month.

Dewulf, 52, is a former French Open semifinalist and world No. 39; he was enjoying when Fissette was making an attempt to make it on the ATP Tour. They bought to know one another then and dwell close to one another in Belgium, typically assembly for a drink and a catch-up.

“He’s very data-driven. Each about his personal participant but in addition the opponent. He’s making ready himself very well each match, and each observe, trying on the numbers day by day,” Dewulf stated.

Fissette would use an iPad between units when teaching Kerber, and his use of information mixed with the emotional intelligence that Dewulf, like most individuals interviewed for this text, cites as key to his success ends in a drive to enhance and develop, however with an actual finish outcome. Growing however dropping just isn’t Fissette’s objective.

“We had three good years, we received two slams, and it was actually good. However I used to be, in some methods, upset,” he informed The Athletic in January of his first stint with Osaka.

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How these teaching philosophies will translate into Swiatek’s sport, mentality, and workforce will unfold over time, however those that have labored with him supply views on the place he suits into her approach of approaching tennis. Dewulf has labelled Fissette as a “good organizer” with the power to research an present partnership from a eliminated perspective, appreciating its strengths whereas trying into its weaknesses.

Konta and Azarenka labored with a psychological coach and psychologist respectively whereas Fissette coached them; on the very begin of their first partnership in 2020, Osaka was in a darkish place. She had misplaced to Coco Gauff within the Australian Open third spherical because the defending champion, after which misplaced her good good friend Kobe Bryant, who died shortly after. The COVID-19 pandemic led to tennis being stopped a few months later, however Osaka discovered the equilibrium to win that yr’s U.S. Open in September 2020 after which the Australian Open the next yr.

“If they’ve been the identical approach for a very long time, he works out what the weak spot are and he will get different individuals in to get a greater workforce round them,” Dewulf stated.

This can be an attention-grabbing sub-plot with Swiatek, who has a lot of longstanding workforce members together with psychologist Daria Abramowicz. Fissette has been identified to experiment: he and Osaka’s workforce introduced in ballet dancer Simone Elliott to assist her enhance her motion.

Swiatek has stated that tactical and technical diversifications to her sport will come within the low season, with too little time between hiring Fissette and the Tour Finals to implement significant modifications, however she has already mentioned what’s coming.

“I for certain need to enhance my serve, as I’ve been doing for previous years,” she stated in a information convention in Riyadh. “I believe tactically there are numerous methods I may go and have extra selection on court docket. Wim has some good concepts.”

Swiatek has added extra velocity to her serve and abbreviated her movement in 2024, however current defeats have been marked by an incapability to alter the momentum of matches, too usually making an attempt to hit by way of opponents in the best way that often wins her matches, as a substitute of fixing tempo or including margin with topspin — one in every of her nice strengths — to earn a neater ball again. This simplification of her sport, launched by Wiktorowski, introduced her nice success and continues to take action; it nonetheless wants an alternate for when it isn’t fairly working.

Fissette labored with Kerber and Azarenka extensively on their serves, and hung out with Osaka making an attempt to develop an aggressive open-stance backhand — a shot {that a} handful of gamers, together with Swiatek, can carry out reliably.

As Swiatek heads into defending her WTA Tour Finals title, Fissette’s usually fast begins could show a boon. Clijsters is the obvious instance however Konta received Miami, the most important title of her profession, inside just a few months of working with him. Lisicki was a shock Wimbledon finalist after an excellent shorter time working with Fissette, whereas Halep reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in her first main with Fissette, earlier than reaching the French Open ultimate in her second.

This immediate impression is one thing just a few observers have pointed to as a Fissette trademark.

Finally, it’s Fissette’s file of success that units him aside, says his teaching rival Mouratoglou, who received 10 Grand Slams with Serena Williams between 2012 and 2017. “I decide the standard of a coach on the outcomes,” Mouratoglou stated from France by way of a Zoom interview this week.

“There are some guys who make outcomes and a few guys who don’t, and a few who do it typically. It’s the identical if you happen to have a look at the soccer, there are just a few coaches each time they take a workforce — success. In fact, they’re nice groups, however with different coaches, they wouldn’t make that success.”

“I’ve a superb relationship with him, he’s one of many guys that I’m all the time glad to see though we’re in competitors,” Mouratoglou stated.

“I believe we’ve got very completely different personalities nevertheless it’s good that there are completely different choices for the gamers.”

One undoubted benefit is how intimately Fissette is aware of a lot of Swatek’s rivals from working with them. Teaching Osaka on the 2020 U.S. Open ultimate, Fissette felt as if he may predict each shot that Azarenka was going to hit. He’ll now be capable to inform Swiatek exactly what her opponents can be anticipating from her as a result of he was within the position of anticipator for Osaka only some months in the past.

Fissette’s experience on the WTA Tour results in the inevitable query about why he has by no means coached a male participant, however the reply is that the chance hasn’t come up. He’s open to doing so however his early success with Clijsters led to job presents on the ladies’s facet and that’s the way it’s been ever since. It’s laborious to think about he wouldn’t be successful there, given what he’s achieved in 15 years on the WTA facet.

It feels troublesome to envisage a state of affairs the place the partnering of two such elite practitioners received’t equate to success both within the medium time period or extra instantly, like a few of Fissette’s earlier partnerships. What makes tennis so thrilling just isn’t fairly figuring out how issues will go — even when this feels just like the closest factor to a certain wager.

(High photograph: Robert Prange / Getty Photographs)