Tears and a heavy reckoning: Coach battle before Osaka’s mommy comeback

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The planned comeback of Naomi Osaka (25) is already accompanied by a lot of tension. The four-time Grand Slam winner, who gave birth to daughter Shai in July, plans to return from her pregnancy break early next year. Just in time for the Australian Open. And with input from an old partner. But that’s exactly what’s getting one of its competitors into trouble.

Osaka brings her old coach Wim Fissette (43) back on board for the comeback. With the Belgian by her side, she won two of her four Grand Slam titles. In 2020 she triumphed with him at the US Open, followed a few months later by victory at the Australian Open.

“This is very immoral”

Only: Fissette was now engaged to Qinwen Zheng (20), the current number 23 in the world. And the Chinese is anything but happy that he has now yielded to his former player’s call. “It’s very immoral,” says Zheng, who says she already had suspicions during the US Open, where she reached the quarter-finals.

At that moment she knew that Fissette was in contact with the Osaka team: “Right after I came out, he told me that he felt like he had no connection with me. It made me feel very strange.” Moments later, he told her he was moving to Osaka, Zheng said at the start of this week’s Masters tournament in Beijing. “That was a big blow for me, my team and my family. I cried when I heard that.”

With anger in your stomach, you turn to gold

Zheng says she understands that Osaka could make him a better offer – and that Fissette also has a family to support. “I understand his decision, but that doesn’t mean I will forgive him.”

The Chinese won her first WTA title this year under Fissette. In July, the woman marched to victory in the 250cc tournament in Palermo with a training base in Barcelona and Roger Federer (42) as a great role model. Now the successful collaboration comes to an abrupt end.

There is some consolation. With anger in his stomach, Zheng has just won gold at the Asian Games – and has already secured a ticket to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Source : Blick