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MONTREAL – A famliar and accomplished face on the rather exclusive carousel of WTA coaches walked onto Court 11 in Montreal Tuesday, shortly before 11 a.m.
Longtime Iga Swiatek coach Tomasz Witkorowski arrived in the city Monday night. And on Tuesday morning, he observed during his first practice with four-time major champion Naomi Osaka.
Yes, Naomi Osaka.
It’s reportedly a trial; the news came out yesterday on a Polish website, indicating that Witkorowski would be mostly observing this week, a bit of a “get-to-know-you” assignment in the middle of the season.
Here’s what they looked like, in this exclusive first footage.
Notably, not a word was spoken between the two of them until … precisely 11:16 a.m. If you’re keeping track!
Eventually, they did interact. He talked to her about her serve, notably. And also a little about her return position. But really, it was an introductory session.
Osaka arrived in Washington. D.C. last week without coach Patrick Mouratoglou, with whom she had been working for nearly a year.
It’s not surprising for big-name players to not have their full-time coaches there for smaller events before a major. But the Mubadala Citi DC Open isn’t really a “small event”.
She had a hitting partner there, and also the guy someone far wittier than us called the “Arthur Fils wannabe”.
Osaka lost to Emma Raducanu in the second round.
She defeated inexperienced qualifier Ariana Arseneault in the first round in Montreal Monday, and will play hard-hitting No. 13 seed Liudmila Samsonova in the second round.
Musical chairs of coaching
Osaka split with Wim Fissette (who is now working with Iga Swiatek) after last year’s US Open – just a few months after saying he was “probably the best coach he’s ever had.”
She swapped him out for Patrick Mouratoglou.
More with Witkorowski … later?
Open Court caught up with Witkorowski, who is 44, after that first practice Tuesday.
He just arrived last night, and didn’t want to do an interview until he’d at least touched base with Osaka’s team to see what their guidelines are about that.
But he did say that he’d had a good break at home with the family and was ready for a new challenge.
This one is an intriguing one, from a purely logistical standpoint. In part because of the language issue.
When Swiatek made the change to Wim Fissette last fall, she said she was ready to go with a non-Polish coach for the first time to take the next step in her career.
Fissette, of course, has a long list of former top players he’s worked with. But it was the first time Swiatek was actually learning and absorbing instruction in English. Which she speaks quite well. But that’s not the same as learning in that language. Not even close.
We’ve mentioned this to a few people about this relationship – mostly, people poo-pooed the very notion that it was a challenge.
But as everyone has seen, it’s taken some time.
Fissette confirmed as much to Radio Wimbledon a few weeks ago.
“She has always had a full Polish team, being coached in specific ways or words, and sometimes in English words can mean the same, but feel different. Week by week I’ve been finding the right approach, the right words, spending a lot of time talking to her team. I’m happy we have had these months and I feel I’m getting closer to being the best coach for her,” he said.
Witkorowski didn’t dismiss that as a factor that would require some adjusting to, as he worked with Swiatek and before that, for seven years, Agnieszka Radwanska.
(It’s the same dynamic – it’s one thing for a coach to speak English quite well. It’s another to TEACH in that language).
But he also pointed out that he had worked with Olga Danilovic, who is Serbian. And that they communicated in English. So at least he has some experience with that. And he expects it would be even easier with Osaka, since English is her first language.
Osaka and Swiatek – Witkorowski and Fissette
As Fissette went from Osaka to Swiatek, Witkorowski will make the exact opposite trip.
Assuming that the two get along and that it seems to have the possibility of gelling well.
Witkorowski could probably talk to Fissette over a great dinner in Montreal about how the two players are so different, and what differences in coaching strategies it would take.
Meanwhile, just as Osaka and Witkorowski were walking off their practice court, look at who was warming up right next door?
Players can be weird about this sort of thing. They might discard a coach. But they don’t want another player to have him because they get paranoid he’ll spill all the secrets about how to beat them.
Then again, there sometimes seem to only be five coaches in all of the WTA and they just play musical chairs with them.
Besides, Swiatek and Osaka don’t exactly hang out. It’ll probably be fine.