Simona Halep is back in action! The former world number one already played her first match after the disqualification: in the WTA-1000 series tournament in Miami she faced the Spanish Paula Badosa in the first round, but lost 6:1, 4:6, 3 : 6. Now the champion of two Helmets takes on an important task: the search for a new permanent coach. And he could be the former mentor of three Russian tennis players.
“I spoke with Carlos Martínez. We will have a period of preparation, of getting to know each other, so to speak, after Miami, when I return to Europe. Hope everything goes well. I really appreciate his work, he trained tennis players that I really liked, like Svetlana Kuznetsova. I admire his work. I hope we get along well and I can reach a higher level,” Halep admitted in a conversation with Digi Sport.
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Spanish coach Carlos Martínez is no stranger to the world of tennis training. Previously, he worked with former world number 12 Feliciano López, former top 20 player Marcel Granollers and also collaborated with three Russians: Svetlana Kuznetsova, Daria Kasatkina and Margarita Betova (Gasparyan). Now the 50-year-old coach has his own CMC Competition academy, located near Barcelona.
Martínez showed himself more clearly as a professional working with Russian women. The Spaniard’s first student from Russia and the women’s circuit in general was Svetlana Kuznetsova. At the time of the start of the cooperation, at the end of 2012, she was ranked 70th in the WTA ranking and was experiencing a decline after being among the top ten tennis players in the world for seven years, periodically losing and winning. positions again.
Kuznetsova trained with Martínez until the summer of 2018. During this time, the Russian returned to the top 10, won five WTA tournaments and reached the quarterfinals of several TBS. She just couldn’t get back to the previous level that Svetlana had in the 2000s.
After the end of the cooperation, the Russian wrote on social networks: “It took me a while to officially announce that [сотрудничество] finished. We have had an incredible journey together and I will cherish every step of it. Thank you Carlos for being there through all the ups and downs! “You will always be like a brother to me.”
Carlos Martínez and Svetlana Kuznetsova
Photo: from the personal archive of Carlos Martínez.
After completing her work with Svetlana, the Spaniard joined the team of another Russian, Margarita Gasparyan (now Betova). At that time, the tennis player was returning to the circuit after an injury and several operations, and Martínez – almost like six years ago with Kuznetsova – had to help the athlete get out of a complicated situation and return to the circuit. This was partially achieved: in one year of cooperation, Carlos led Margarita to the second WTA title of her career (Tashkent 2018) and helped her return to the top 60.
Next, Martínez began working with the third Russian tennis player, Daria Kasatkina. Carlos and Daria collaborated from 2019 to 2023. During this time, the Russian returned to the top ten in the rankings, won four WTA titles and reached her first and so far only TBS semi-final at Roland Garros 2022.
Carlos Martínez and Daria Kasatkina
Photo: Sarah Reed/Getty Images
After breaking up with Kasatkina last year, Carlos commented on working with the Russian: “Dasha started to dedicate time to other things. I have always said that she needs to find time to work with a psychologist to know herself better and deal with some things better. I have always been very honest with her. Sometimes honesty hurts, but I have always strived to help her get to the top.
I love her so much. She’s amazing and she was the perfect player for me, but we couldn’t go down that path anymore. Fortunately we maintained a very good relationship. Dasha is wonderful, she just lacks the maturity and life experience to understand certain things. For four years, Dasha worked like a lioness and did a lot to get out of the hole. But she still has a huge margin of progress, so I’m a little offended. We could do much more,” Punto de Break quotes Martínez.
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Now Martínez can come to the aid of Halep, who is in a difficult situation after a break, disqualification, doping procedure and termination of work with Patrick Mouratoglou. It is not yet known which tournament will be the next test for Simone, who returns to action. However, it is clear that the Romanian is not going to give up or end his career just yet.
