Former world No.1 Karolina Pliskova is on the hunt to find a new member for her team after parting ways with coach Daniel Vallverdu.
The world No.6 said she has come to a ‘mutual agreement’ with her former coach to end their collaboration after working with him since November 2019. Pliskova points out that the reason for the split is due to her plan to start off-season training next week, which clashed with Vallverdu’s ‘time commitments.’ Her former mentor is also the current coach of Stan Wawrinka who is playing at the Paris Masters this week.
“Due to the reduced number of WTA tournaments by the end of the year, the tournament in Ostrava was my last in the season,” Pliskova tweeted on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, due to time commitments, my coach Daniel Vallverdu and I have mutually agreed to no longer work together. I’d like to thank Dani for the work and the time we’ve spent together.”
Pliskova ends her 2020 season with a win-loss record of 14-8 and prize money of just over $880,000. In January she won her 16th WTA title after defeating Madison Keys in the final of the Brisbane International. Pliskova also reached the final of the Italian Open but had to withdraw midway through due to injury. In the Grand Slams her best performance was reaching the third round of the Australian Open.
The season officially ended for Pliskova last month after she crashed out in the first round of the Ostrava Open. After that loss she reflected on what has been a difficult second half of the year for her with both injury and the close proximity of two Grand Slam events. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic this year’s French Open started two weeks after the US Open.
“I need more time to adapt on the surface, on the week, where I actually play,” she said. “I think nothing really worked out. I thought Rome was quite good, I played some good matches there, otherwise it was so-so.”
“The year is done, so I have to put it behind me and just hope that next year is going to be better, and I had plenty of good seasons in a row, so one bad season, maybe it was time for it to come.” Pliskova added.
Pliskova has been continuously ranked in the world’s top 10 since September 2016.
