End of the road for Pouille and Mauresmo – who also announces he has COVID-19

It’s been a very tough year for Frenchman Lucas Pouille.

And he ends it by announcing that it’s the end of the road for his collaboration with countrywoman Amélie Mauresmo.

https://twitter.com/la_pouille/status/1320010827768995841

“Thank you for everything. After two years of a lovely collaboration, our road ends but I’ll take some valuable teachings with me,” Pouille wrote on Twitter.

Not only that, Pouille also announced that he has contracted the coronavirus.

He has lost his sense of smell, but nothing else so far, he wrote. He plans a “seven-day isolation”.

As if 2020 couldn’t have been much worse for him.

A lost year for Pouille

Here they are, two days before the March shutdown, practicing at Indian Wells.

Video: Pouille and Mauresmo get back to work

Pouille began 2018 with a title in Montpellier and finals in Marseille and Dubai. By Indian Wells, he reached the top 10.

But by the end of the season, he was struggling. He lost in the first round of three of his four tournaments after the US Open.

He hired Mauresmo in December of that year, ending a six-year relationship with well-known French coach Emmanuel Planque.

New job for Mauresmo: coaching Pouille

The early “new coach” bump was real. Pouille reached the Australian Open semifinals the following month.

But in the end, he went a fairly pedestrian 21-21 on the year. Ranked No. 17 after Melbourne, he ended it after winning back-to-back matches in only five tournaments after that as he wrestled with an elbow injury.

Elbow surgery in July

The injury ended his season early, in Shanghai. And he wasn’t able to come back for the 2020 Australian summer.

Finally, Pouille returned at Indian Wells, losing his first match at the warmup challenger to Noah Rubin.

Then, the shutdown. After playing and losing two matches at the UTS Showdown exhibition, Pouille finally decided to have surgery on the elbow in July.

He was hoping to be back before the end of the 2020 season. But it hasn’t happened.

Now, when he does begin again, it’ll be a new start with a new coach.