After recent speculation, Elina Svitolina has confirmed that former world No.1 Justine Henin will join her coaching team.
Svitolina hinted in December that she was aiming for a potential partnership with Henin. During her time in Abu Dhabi, the 21-year-old spent time training with her current coach Iain Hughes as well as Henin in what was ‘like a trail’ according to Svitolina. The Ukrainian has known Henin for a long time after becoming a regular at the Justine Henin academy. Svitolina recently talked about the prospect of working with Henin.
“We will see how it will go with Justine. Of course, it’s going to be an amazing opportunity because she’s such a great champion”. She told Sport 360 last year.
The trial collaboration between the two appears to be going strong after confirmation of Henin formally becoming part of Svitolina’s team. The Belgian will be a ‘specialist consultant’ for the 21-year-old and will attend some tournaments with her. Their first tournament together will be at next week’s Dubai Tennis Championships. It will be the first time that Henin has coached at the top level of the tour.
Svitolina has endured a slow start to 2016. After suffering a first round loss to Angelique Kerber at the Apia Open in Sydney, the 21-year-old suffered a second round loss to world No.127 Naomi Osaka at the Australian Open. Currently, she is ranked 21st in the world.
So far in Svitolina’s career, she has won three WTA titles (Baku 2013-2014 and Marrakech 2015). Last year she achieved her best Grand Slam performance by reaching the quarterfinals of the French Open.
Profile of Svitolina’s new coach
Name: Justine Henin
Age : 33
Nationality: Belgian
Grand Slam titles: 7 (four-time French Open champion, two-time US Open champion and Australian Open champion)
WTA titles: 35
Olympic Medals: Gold Medal from the 2004 Olympic Games
Weeks at world No.1: 117
Random fact: Between 2005-2010, Henin won 40 consecutive sets at the French Open.
