[goldenlox]

The next major is not until late May. For now, I want to see Caroline have a few deep runs at some of these premiers, and stay near the top in 2012 points.
New Haven is the only final she's played since June. Thats a long time ago

[bruce goose]

Originally Posted by goldenlox

New Haven is the only final she's played since June. Thats a long time ago

Not to totally sidestep the current,relevant issues,but folks should call New Haven,and not Copenhagen the 'Caro Open' for how she has dominated that worthy title

[marineblue]

Originally Posted by goldenlox

When a parent is coach, a new coach has to get along with that parent. He has her ear every day. Her parents are 2 people Caroline trusts.
Anyway, lets see how she plays now. Last year she only lost 1 match from AO loss to Miami loss, all titles & a final in between

I agree. I think Sanchez had unrealistic expectations about their cooperation. How could he expect that Piotr would just let him make changes and step aside after all the years he spent working with Caroline?! With no practical experience with tennis he's turned her to a top-class player. I think it is understandable that he was very concerned about her future and not prepared to let a new face in the team take over everything from one day to another.

I get the impression that Sanchez came to their team with an outlook to change things, he doesn't sound like he had a lot of belief in their approach and wasn't prepared to build on that. I think that a good coach would not try to force them work differently since the start of cooperation but would take things slowly and more carefully AND strive to create a good working relationship with her father.

[bruce goose]

Originally Posted by marineblue

I agree. I think Sanchez had unrealistic expectations about their cooperation. How could he expect that Piotr would just let him make changes and step aside after all the years he spent working with Caroline?! With no practical experience with tennis he's turned her to a top-class player. I think it is understandable that he was very concerned about her future and not prepared to let a new face in the team take over everything from one day to another.

I get the impression that Sanchez came to their team with an outlook to change things, he doesn't sound like he had a lot of belief in their approach and wasn't prepared to build on that. I think that a good coach would not try to force them work differently since the start of cooperation but would take things slowly and more carefully AND strive to create a good working relationship with her father.

There's a lot of sound reasoning to what you've shared above,and it also makes it more believable when other posters claim that Piotr found one of his old buddies to work with Caroline

[marineblue]

I think that could be the case. Now he will probably want to have just a consultant instead of a coach.

[DownInAHole]

Originally Posted by marineblue

I agree. I think Sanchez had unrealistic expectations about their cooperation. How could he expect that Piotr would just let him make changes and step aside after all the years he spent working with Caroline?! With no practical experience with tennis he's turned her to a top-class player. I think it is understandable that he was very concerned about her future and not prepared to let a new face in the team take over everything from one day to another.

I get the impression that Sanchez came to their team with an outlook to change things, he doesn't sound like he had a lot of belief in their approach and wasn't prepared to build on that. I think that a good coach would not try to force them work differently since the start of cooperation but would take things slowly and more carefully AND strive to create a good working relationship with her father.

I think that Caroline needs to take control of her future and forget about Piotr (as a coach). Maybe I am wrong but it appears that she has grown as a player as much as she can with him as her coach. Since she became number one there hasn't been much tangible growth in her game, if she is going to stay near the top and hopefully win some slams she needs to keep improving. I'm not convinced that she can do that with Piotr as her coach. The problem Sanchez appears to have run into is that Piotr is still in the picture and ultimately in control. Until Caroline gets rid of him as a coach I think any future coaches/consultants will run into a similar problem and not be able to help Caroline as much as they would without Piotr looking over their shoulder.

Right now her biggest problem is mental. She needs to find a way to take control of key points during matches rather than reverting to being passive and hoping for errors from her opponent. Maybe a new coach will not be able to help with that but we have seen over the last six-eight months that under Piotr she isn't getting any stronger mentally. A change in coach can not make things much worse than they currently are and could make things much better.

If she does very well in February/March and has deep runs (winning at least one title) I will gladly eat my words. If that doesn't happen I think it will be clear that there is a problem that needs to be addressed before she can get back to where she was a year to a year and a half ago.

[bruce goose]

In re the 1st paragraph above,I'm surprised that your pessimism didn't smack you in the face;the odds on Caro's making a clean coaching break,as you described it,seem pretty remote at this point

[Jimmie48]

Originally Posted by DownInAHole

I think that Caroline needs to take control of her future and forget about Piotr (as a coach). Maybe I am wrong but it appears that she has grown as a player as much as she can with him as her coach. Since she became number one there hasn't been much tangible growth in her game, if she is going to stay near the top and hopefully win some slams she needs to keep improving. I'm not convinced that she can do that with Piotr as her coach. The problem Sanchez appears to have run into is that Piotr is still in the picture and ultimately in control. Until Caroline gets rid of him as a coach I think any future coaches/consultants will run into a similar problem and not be able to help Caroline as much as they would without Piotr looking over their shoulder.

Right now her biggest problem is mental. She needs to find a way to take control of key points during matches rather than reverting to being passive and hoping for errors from her opponent. Maybe a new coach will not be able to help with that but we have seen over the last six-eight months that under Piotr she isn't getting any stronger mentally. A change in coach can not make things much worse than they currently are and could make things much better.

100% agree.

[Chrissie-fan]

I don't get any of this. Didn't these people talk with each other before they decided to work together?

[TennisFan66]

Originally Posted by DownInAHole

I think that Caroline needs to take control of her future and forget about Piotr (as a coach).

Right now her biggest problem is mental.

If she does very well in February/March and has deep runs (winning at least one title) I will gladly eat my words. .

Disagree

Agree

A good performance from Dubai through Miami would be nice indeed.

[DownInAHole]

Originally Posted by Chrissie-fan

I don't get any of this. Didn't these people talk with each other before they decided to work together?

All we can do is engage in wild speculation (which I am happy to do).

Whatever problems/differences there were in the beginning probably appeared to be small but as time went on and Caroline started to play actual matches those problems/differences likely became much bigger and impossible to overcome.

Many people, myself included, are placing the blame on Piotr's shoulders but there are only a very small number of people (Caroline and Ricardo and almost certainly Piotr) who know the truth. Maybe Caroline was unhappy with Ricardo and overruled Piotr? We will probably never know what happened but from the outside looking in things appear to be a bit chaotic. Hopefully things will stabilise and Caroline can focus on her tennis.

[bruce goose]

Heard a rumor that Rory won some sort of Laureus Award(they're an irrelevant,non-entity for North American sports fans),so I suppose that there's happy news SOMEwhere in the Caro camp

[marineblue]

Originally Posted by DownInAHole

All we can do is engage in wild speculation (which I am happy to do).

Whatever problems/differences there were in the beginning probably appeared to be small but as time went on and Caroline started to play actual matches those problems/differences likely became much bigger and impossible to overcome.

Many people, myself included, are placing the blame on Piotr's shoulders but there are only a very small number of people (Caroline and Ricardo and almost certainly Piotr) who know the truth. Maybe Caroline was unhappy with Ricardo and overruled Piotr? We will probably never know what happened but from the outside looking in things appear to be a bit chaotic. Hopefully things will stabilise and Caroline can focus on her tennis.

I wonder why so few considered the possibility that the fault could be really in Sanchez even though Caro herself said that she felt he brought nothing new to the table.

I am no tennis expert but from a few quotes from him I gained an impression that he came up with the usual ideas her detractors have about her game. In short: you must be more aggressive.
But I think that if you look at Caroline's career it shows the opposite. She achieved her success playing the opposite way based on patience and moving the opponent around the court rather than trying to attack. I think that a style that is natural for her and to change all that now when she's 21 was just a silly idea. Who knows, maybe when she heard him talking she thought 'oh no, that's what I have heard thousand times and now I even have to pay for it'

I think she was looking for someone who would help her to develop HER style not to force her play the way that they think is right without considering what suits her. That idea with hitting forehand instead of a backhand or being happy that she injured her wrist since she'd be forced to do forehands summed it up for me. I had a gut feeling that this wouldn't last long.

I think she'll not hire a coach for a long time from now on. Let's see what she and Piotr can do. Maybe this will work out best for them.

[Burisleif]

Sanchez is doing irreparable harm to his reputation.

[bruce goose]

Don't feel too qualified to assign primary blame here,but this situation between Sanchez and Caro didn't appear to be worked out too clearly,for both sides,in advance.Seems like it was doomed to fail before it ever started