Johanna Konta has re-hired the services of her former coach Dimitri Zavialoff after the partnership had ended earlier in 2020.
Zavialoff, who had begun coaching Konta in 2019, opted out of the role in a bid to reduce his travelling time but in the meantime had helped the Brit through to some of her best results at Grand Slams.
She made it to the last four stage French Open last year while entering the quarterfinals at both, the Wimbledon and the US Open as well under Zavialoff’s tutelage.
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This time around, however, Zavialoff could opt to not travel so much with Konta after the 29-year-old opted not to replace her hitting partner Dan Smethurst from the team.
Zavialoff has been around coaching a few other players over the years. He was the first coach hired by Swiss number two Stan Wawrinka, and later went on to assist Timea Bacsinszky into the top 10 of the world ranking.
The world number 14 Konta did not have the best of 2020 season and that might have prompted her to strike another deal with Zavialoff. While the season was heavily curtailed, an 8-9 win-loss record would have hardly done justice to Konta’s pedigree.
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The Brit, who last won a title in 2017, made it as far as the semifinal at the Monterrey Open and then followed it up with another semifinal at the Western & Southern Open but her other results were quite underwhelming.
In fact, of the other seven tournaments she played in, she suffered first round defeats in five of them including the French Open and the Australian Open. And at the US Open she was knocked out in the second round.
Konta was lucky not to lose her ranking by too much because of the change in the rules but another underwhelming year could see her drop drastically on the charts.
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