Former Australian star Pat Cash is coaching Chinese player Qiang Wang. They have started coaching in Dubai in the build-up to the Australian Open.
Wang is now ranked world number 34. She reached four WTA finals and won two titles in Jiangxi and Guangzhou and the gold medal at the Asian Games in 2018. She reached two more finals in Hong Kong and at the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai, the semifinals in Bejing and Wuhan and ended the 2018 season as world number 20.
She became the fifth Chinese player after Li Na, Zheng Jie, Peng Shuai and Zhang Shuai to reach a Grand Slam singles quarter final and the third to achieve this goal at the US Open after Li and Peng. Wang lost to eventual finalist Serena Williams in straight sets, winning just one game. After the US Open Wang rose six places to reach another new career high of world number 12, becoming the second-highest ranked Chinese player in history.
Wang opened the 2020 season with a quarter final in Shenzhen. At the Australian Open she beat Pauline Parmentier and Fiona Ferro to reach the third round before taking an upset three-set win over Serena Williams.
Wang split up with her former coach Thomas Drouet.
“I am super excited to finally be on court with Chinese number 1 player Wang after six weeks of pre-season analysis and remote coaching”, wrote Pat Cash on his twitter account.
Cash is now coaching 19-year-old US Next Gen player Brandon Nakashima and worked in the past with Greg Rusedski, Mark Philippousis, Coco Vandeweghe and Alexei Popyrin in the past. During his career Cash won the Wimbledon title in 1987, played two Australian Open finals and reached his career-high of world number 4
The Australian coach talked about the difference between training male and female players during a podcast with Nina Pantic and Irina Falconi on the Tennis.com podcast.
“I have no preference between training male or female players. Men take more time to reach the top. What happened to Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu is more unlikely at men’s level. With male player you need a long term plan of three to four years. The most positive aspect in the WTA circuit is that great results can happen soon, if you train a young player, who is in good shape”.
