Professional tennis is highly competitive and challenging whether it’s the Men’s or the Women’s categories and therefore a strong coaching team is key to a player’s success. However, if the same partnership doesn’t foster improvement, development or positive results, the same coaching team could become insignificant.
Tennis in 2025 has been marked by many upheavals which has resulted in a lot of top players parting ways with their coaches in order to spark a change and rediscover the success and improvement that they had been seeking.
Consequently, we take a look at eight significant player-coach splits in 2025 –
Kazakhstani women’s player Elena Rybakina had hired former Croatian legend Goran Ivaniševi? in November 2024 after parting ways with her previous coach Stefano Vukov. Ivanisevic’s previous coaching stint had been a successful one with the great Novak Djokovic. However, the new partnership with the Croat didn’t work and after Rybakina’s 2025 Australian Open fourth-round exit, Ivaniševi? resigned from his position. The reason for the split was related to Rybakina’s former coach Vukov rejoining the team despite WTA suspension and Ivaniševi? wasn’t sure about the dynamics of the coaching staff. Hence, he decided to move on only after the initial trial period of two months.
Rybakina’s long-time coach Vukov is back in her coaching staff now and also guided her to qualification at the year-ending WTA Finals in Riyadh. Rybakina ended up winning the coveted trophy and ending the year as World No. 5 which means the return of Vukov was the right choice in the end.
The whole tennis world was surprised when Novak Djokovic decided to team up with former grand slam winner Andy Murray in November 2024. It was an intriguing appointment by Djokovic to hire the services of his former rival with whom he had shared the court many times before. The aim of the partnership was to boost Djokovic’s performances and enable him to compete against younger and more athletic opponents. However, Murray was unable to have the desired impact and the two parties parted ways mutually after six months in May 2025.
While the partnership started well with Djokovic reaching the Australian Open Semis and the Miami Open finals, what followed was a string of underwhelming results interspersed with injury issues. Hence, before the Wimbledon Championships, both decided to end the partnership by mutual agreement.
Djokovic is currently being coached by his former analyst and assistant coach Boris Bošnjakovi?.
Italian Women’s singles and doubles player, Jasmine Paolini also split up with new coach Marc Lopez in July 2025 after working with him for a short stint of three months. Earlier in the season, Paolini had parted ways with her coach of ten years, Renzo Furlan but the reasoning for the split wasn’t mentioned.
In the span of three months, Lopez had guided Paolini to her first WTA 1000 title in Rome, a French Open doubles title and a semi-final appearance at the Miami Open which were all significant achievements. However, Paolini’s performances at the Grand Slams in singles category were underwhelming as she made a fourth-round exit at the 2025 French Open and a second-round exit at the 2025 Wimbledon which prompted her split with Lopez. Paolini had also hired an interim coach in Italian active player Federico Gaio after removing Lopez from her team but he was let go in November 2025 as well.
Currently, Paolini’s coaching staff consists of technical coach Danilo Pizzorno and her doubles partner Sara Errani as a strategic coach.
Experienced coach Patrick Mouratoglou has worked with several top players like Serena Williams, Simona Halep and Holger Rune. Additionally, he has also been running his tennis academy since 1996. Hence, it was no surprise that former grand slam champion Naomi Osaka decided to team up with him in September 2024.
Ten months later, the two decided to part ways after a string of poor performances, following a fourth-round exit at the Mubadala Citi DC Open. The two parted mutually with Mouratoglou claiming responsibility for the poor results and cited lack of competitiveness while also praising the improvement in Osaka’s physical strength over the period.
After her split with Mouratoglou, Osaka teamed up with Polish coach Tomasz Wiktorowski. The partnership yielded instant improvement with Osaka reaching her first WTA 1000 final at the Canadian Open – a feat she achieved after three years. She made major strides in her quest for returning to the top level.
Greek Men’s player Stefanos Tsitsipas seemed to have lost his way in the last few years. From ranked a career-high World No. 3 in August 2021, his ranking had plummeted to World No. 30 which prompted Tsitsipas to look for a coach. Thus, Tsitsipas decided to collaborate with Goran Ivaniševi? in May 2025. However, two poor results in Halle and Wimbledon led to an ugly split between the Greek player and the Croatian coach.
After the first-round exit at Wimbledon, the partnership came to a premature end with Ivaniševi? with the Croatian being scathing in his assessment. Ivaniševi? cited lack of preparation on Tsitsipas’ end. Tsitsipas on the other hand, mentioned that he was seeking a supportive family-like coaching environment rather than a strict and intense coach which resulted in the end of the partnership.
Post the separation, Tsitsipas brought back his father Apostolos Tsitsipas as his primary coach in July 2025. The partnership with his father has been a fairly successful one as he had earlier taken him to a French Open final and the World No. 3 ranking.
After an underwhelming year American Frances Tiafoe ended the 2025 season prematurely after the Rolex Shanghai Masters exit in October 2025, also splitting up with coach David Witt and coaching staff member Jordi Arconada.
The collaboration with Witt had been for a year and a half while Arconada had been part of his staff for five years. Under Witt’s tutelage, Tiafoe reached the 2024 US Open semi-final and also made a French Open quarter-final appearance in 2025. However, the rest of his season was marred with disappointing performances with his ranking dropping down to World No. 29 and hence the player decided to part ways and seek a coaching change for 2026.
In October 2025, Tiafoe hired former American player Todd Martin as his coach going into 2026. Todd Martin has been a former Top-10 ranked player, also reaching the Men’s Singles final at the 1994 Australian Open and the 1999 US Open. Having played at the big stages in his career, Martin could be an astute signing for Big Foe.
The most surprising player-coach split happened with Carlos Alcaraz and long-time coach Juan Carlos Ferrero. While every other player-coach split happened due to underwhelming performances and poor results, Alcaraz and Ferrero parting ways was strange as Alcaraz had a phenomenal season and Ferrero was awarded the ATP ‘Coach of the Year’ award.
Ferrero had been Alcaraz’s coach for the past seven years and led him to 24 career titles which includes six grand slams and eight ATP Masters 1000 titles amongst others. Alcaraz had just ended a successful year with two majors, three ATP Masters 1000 titles while being a runner-up at the year-ending NITTO ATP Finals in Turin.
However, the two parted ways in December 2025 with no particular reasoning given. As per speculations, Alcaraz’s inner circle was the ones that decided to move on to a different coaching style and there were also financial disagreements and tournament scheduling issues that led to the split.
Alcaraz is currently training with assistant coach Samuel Lopéz who will act as interim coach for the 2026 Australian Open and beyond until a permanent coach is hired.
In December 2025, another player-coach split was announced. Bulgarian player Grigor Dimitrov announced his split with coach Daniel Vallverdu, marking an end to a two-year partnership that began in late 2022. Incidentally, this was the second coaching stint of Vallverdu with Dimitrov after the initial period of 2016 to 2019 when he coached him for the first time. In his second stint with Dimitrov, Vallverdu propelled him to a title at the 2024 Brisbane International and a return to the Top 10 rankings.
The decision taken by Dimitrov is not a consequence of poor performances but a view at a fresh start in 2026. After his exploits at Wimbledon where he unfortunately ended up retiring due to injury after a two-set lead against Jannik Sinner in the Round of 16, Dimitrov had to undergo surgery for a pectoral injury which saw him miss out tournaments until a first-round appearance at the Rolex Paris Masters after which he decided to end his 2025 campaign.
As per speculation, Dimitrov seemed to have added former Top 20 Belgian player Xavier Malisse to his coaching team for 2026 as Malisse was seen attending a training session with the player in December 2025 though a formal announcement is still pending.
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