The Australian Open is about to commence and it is hard not to notice again all the changes done at the coaching level among the top WTA players with Naomi Osaka, Simona Halep, Karolina Pliskova, and Garbine Muguruza included.
Karolina Pliskova hired Dani Vallverdu and Olga Savchuk after parting ways with Conchita Martinez that joined Garbine Muguruza soon after. The Spaniard (finally) parted ways from Sam Sumyk after a dysfunctional relationship with the Frenchman then joining Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Then it was time for Simona Halep to have back is dear Darren Cahill alongside Artemon Apostu-Efremov after splitting with Daniel Dobre. Kiki Bertens parted ways with Raemon Sluiter before hiring Elise Tamaela while Angelique Kerber replaced Rainer Schuttler with Dieter Kindlmann. Wim Fissette left Vika Azarenka to join Naomi Osaka after she ditched Jermaine Jenkins. Finally, we had another swap with Monica Puig hiring Philippe Dehaes after parting ways with Kamau Murray that joined Sloane Stephens after the American separated from Sven Groeneveld.
Things are not over yet. In fact, Sascha Bajin left Kiki Mladenovic to join Dayana Yatremska after she fired Oliver Jeunehomme. Petra Martic hired MartjinBok and her previous coach, Sandra Zaniewska joined Alize Cornet. Elina Svitolina added Marcos Baghdatis in her coaching team while Timea Babos hired Michael Joyce (her previous coach Thomas Druet then joined Qiang Wang). Amanda Anisimova hired Carlos Rodriguez while Julia Goerges joined forces with Jens Gerlach (her previous coach Michael Geserer was then hired by Jennifer Brady.
To make things more understandable, here you can see the graphic… that’s a lot of stuff!
Lovely graphic @NickMcCarve
Obsessed with these @WTA coaching change/update graphics. But also wow that's a lot of ch- ch- changes!
Nice work WTA comms team #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/NcBxLFX40p
— Nick McCarvel (@NickMcCarvel) January 19, 2020
Naomi Osaka’s ranking and performance in 2020
At the moment ranked no.3, the Japanese played her last match on the 11th of January when she surrendered to Karolina Pliskova 6-710 7-63 6-2 in the semifinal in Brisbane.
Naomi Osaka’s most significant achievement of the current year was reaching the semi-finals in Brisbane.
Simona Halep’s ranking and performance in 2020
Currently ranked no.4, the Romanian played her last match on the 16th of January when she surrendered to Aryna Sabalenka 6-4 6-2 in the quarter in Adelaide.
Naomi Osaka and Simona Halep played each other 5 times. The head to head is 4-1 for Halep.
The last time that they played, Simona Halep won 6-1 6-0 in the 2nd round in Rome (Internazionali BNL d’Italia) in May 2018.
Karolina Pliskova’s ranking and performance in 2020
Ranked world no.2, Pliskova played her last match on the 12th of January when she beat Madison Keys 6-4 4-6 7-5 in the final in Brisbane to win her 16th career title.
During this season Karolina has a 4-0 win-loss record. Karolina conquered 1 title in Brisbane.
Garbine Muguruza’s ranking and performance in 2020
Currently ranked no.34, the Spaniard was supposed to play on the 16th of January. However, she conceded a walk over to Veronika Kudermetova in the quarter in Hobart.
Garbine Muguruza’s most significant performance of the current season was getting to the semi-finals in Shenzhen.
Karolina Pliskova and Garbine Muguruza played each other 10 times. The head to head is 8-2 for Pliskova.
The last time that they fought against each other, Karolina Pliskova won 6-3 6-1 in the 4th round in Melbourne (Australian Open) in January 2019.
