Prior to her opening match at the Canadian Open, Naomi Osaka announced that Patrick Mouratoglou is no longer her coach.
10 months ago the Frenchman joined the four-time Grand Slam champion’s team after she parted ways with Wim Fissette, who now coaches Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek.
But while Osaka showed glimpses of the form that took her to multiple major titles, the 27-year-old has been unable to find that consistency needed to reach the top level.
Naomi Osaka has now planned to go in another direction as her partnership with Mouratoglou is now over.
Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty ImagesJon Wertheim thinks Patrick Mouratoglou was not offering enough tactical advice to Naomi Osaka
Osaka’s best WTA result under Patrick Mouratoglou was reaching the ASB Classic final in January. She won the first set in that encounter, but was unable to continue after suffering an injury.
She did also compete at the L’Open 35 de Saint Malo at the WTA 125K level, and won the title, her first on clay. But Osaka struggled at WTA 1000 level and Grand Slams and she has now decided to part ways with Mouratoglou.
Discussing the former partnership, Jon Wertheim was not surprised and thinks the 55-year-old was not giving Osaka enough of what she needed to progress.
“I don’t think this was a huge surprise. This has been a relationship of less than a year. Osaka has won a fair amount of matches but not at the biggest and best events,” he said.
“She just took a loss to Emma Raducanu in Washington, her coach Patrick Mouratoglou was not there. I think some of this is about results and some of this is about logistics.
“Patrick has got his hand in a million pots and is promoting a book and is doing the tennis showdown. Naomi is based in Miami and Patrick is an ocean away in Nice.
“Patrick is also a guy who pumps a player up with confidence, I think he is much better known for that than any tactical expertise and I think if a player doesn’t have confidence, as Naomi doesn’t appear to have much of right now, I am not sure what the relationship is all about.
Photo by Robert Prange/Getty ImagesNaomi Osaka is set to begin a trial with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski
Mouratoglou is no longer Osaka’s coach and she is already on the lookout for a new one.
She is currently competing at the Canadian Open, where she is working with Tomasz Wiktorowski on a trial basis.
The Pole previously coached Agnieszka Radwańska, a former Wimbledon finalist. Wiktorowski most recently coached Swiatek, who he guided to multiple majors and the world number one ranking.
Osaka made a solid start to her campaign in Montreal by beating home favourite Ariana Arseneault to reach the second round.
The Japanese star will play 13th seed Liudmila Samsonova in the next round.
AloJapan.com