Frances Tiafoe hasn't enjoyed the best of times on the ATP Tour in recent months, and that's why he appointed a new coach.
The American is currently far from the heights that he reached only a few months ago. Back in 2023, he broke into the Top 10 and it seemed like further progress was inevitable.
However, that never came. Tiafoe has struggled a lot this year, winning the same exact number of matches that he lost (16), which is far from a record that a player would want to have, given he finished the last season with a 40-21 record and a career-high year-end finish as the World No. 16.
The 26-year-old has struggled across all surfaces and all levels, even though he showed at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships that he could play against the best, when he pushed the eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz into five sets.
Still, Tiafoe felt that his career needed refreshing, and that's why he appointed a new coach. Last year, the American parted ways with Wayne Ferreira, who he worked with since 2020.
He appointed Diego Moyano, who previously worked with Coco Gauff, as his new coach, but already in April of this year, the two stopped working together, so another coaching change followed for Tiafoe.
Once again, he chose to go with a coach who worked with a fellow American player from the WTA Tour, and also one that was relatively close to Gauff, as he chose Jessica Pegula's former coach, David Witt.
Witt and Pegula have worked together since 2019 when they suddenly split in February of this year. The 51-year-old, who was previously named as the WTA Coach of the Year, admitted that he was caught off-guard by his protege's decision, but it didn't take long before he found new coaching arrangement.
Maria Sakkari also parted her ways with coach who she worked with since 2018, and with both looking for after their professional splits, the two started working together in March of this year.
However, their collaboration lasted only about three months, as Sakkari and Witt parted ways in June of this year. That meant Witt was once again available, and with Tiafoe being without a coach, he made a decision to try it out with Pegula's former coach.
Explaining his decision at the 2024 Atlanta Open, where he chose to compete to start his North American hard-court swing, instead of traveling to Paris for the Olympic Games, he stated that he saw the move as a chance for a "fresh start".
"It’s been good. It’s been about a week and a half. He’s super chill, just like me, and he’s obviously done a great job with Venus and he did a great job Pegula. It’s good to have him on the team, we’ve been friends for a long time. I just wanted a fresh start with someone, and I thought he was the perfect guy."
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