Published 21:47 IST, October 20th 2019
Kristina Mladenovic announces that she and Sascha Bajin have split
French tennis player Kristina Mladenovic announced that she and her coach Sacha Bajin will not be continuing their partnership in the new tennis season.
Kristina Mladenovic has announced that she and her coach Sascha Bajin have split and the latter will not be a part of her team in the new tennis season. Mladenovic stated that it was Bajin who decided to end his tenure as her coach. The development comes six months after they had gotten together.
Mladenovic released a statement on her Twitter account which said, "I am very dissapointed about Sascha's decision not to continue our relationship next season. I enjoyed our work, we had some great wins and I truly felt my game was on the rise again. I think that there was a lot more to achieve together but I can't change his opinion & decision. On my side, I am proud of my year & progress and I will keep working hard and build strong to be even better in 2020". The two came together in mid-April and the partnership has had a positive impact on the French player.
The announcement of the split comes a day after Mladenovic was knocked out of the semifinals of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow by Belinda Bencic 6-3, 6-4. Mladenovic is currently ranked 45th in the world as per the WTA rankings in the week beginning October 14.
Bajin has previously coached Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka. He spilt with the latter in February soon after she won the Australian Open, her second straight Grand Slam. He was also voted the 2018 WTA Coach of the Year.
'He believes in me'
The exact reason for the split is not yet known. Soon after they got together Mladenovic said, "Since I arrived on the tour we've always been on great terms, but just not the right timing. He had another project. It was pretty natural. I contacted him personally when I saw he finished with Naomi." She added that she liked him as a professional and as a person and that believed in his coaching abilities. "I'm lucky that it happened because I really like Sascha as a coach and as a person, and I have no doubt he is one of the best, if not the best, in how I see things and how work should be done. He had lots of success in the past so he also proved it."
The Mladenovic-Bajin split isn't the only one in the past few days. Petra Martic has split with her coach Sandra Zaniewska and Julia Goerges has also split with her coach Sebastian Sachs.
(With inputs from the WTA website)
Updated 22:56 IST, October 20th 2019