Coach, and in the past Russian tennis player Dmitry Tursunov spoke about the termination of work with the 22nd racket of the world Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Are you currently working with Alexandrova?

– No, we agreed on two tournaments – Rome and Roland Garros. As planned, they worked.

– Why is it so?

– Don’t know. They offered so, I agreed. If there is a player’s desire to work further, then there is a discussion on what conditions to continue. This format is more logical to call a consultation than a joint work.

— Did you have any specific area of ​​responsibility?

– It is correct to consider it as a consultation. Many hire a coach to just serve the ball and create an atmosphere. Someone so that he controls everything from “A” to “Z”. There are some intermediate options, for example, a view from the outside. A kind of coach for an hour. This is also practiced. At some point, there was a fashion for former elite players who worked with current players as a second coach.

— Can something be done in one or two tournaments?

– A lot depends on the player himself, how open he is to changes. Someone quickly grasps, someone cannot be persuaded. It happens that the information is correct, but the player is not ready to hear it or does not agree with it, or there are too many thoughts about the result, and the changes are not “on topic”. It is possible to improve something in terms of tactics, to patch up some things, but it is clear that the coach is not a magician, he cannot make any fundamental changes in 30 minutes. This is my first experience in a consultation format during tournaments. Although there are some shifts in the direction of work, as well as Katya’s awareness of some moments in her game. But, of course, with its potential, I would like to make a candy.

– Did you like it?

– It’s hard. You can’t fully do some things because you are confronted with the psychological side of the player during tournaments. Changes can affect the result, but you can not give guarantees. As a coach, you have to keep yourself in check. If in a normal format you, as a coach, are responsible for the result, then in a short period you do not control most of what is happening and cannot dictate what needs to be changed. Here the player either agrees with you or not. But you are already a hostage of the player’s internal state, and you don’t have any leverage.

– So you didn’t like it?

– Work in this format is not as fruitful as in the long term. I like it when my vision and the player’s vision coincide. But now this is not happening, so I do what I can, in the moment.

– What are the reasons for your breakup with Belinda Bencic in April? Is it related to politics?

– No. Of course, I can’t get into someone else’s head, but I doubt it. I can’t speak about the internal kitchen with Bencic under the terms of the contract, – Metaratings.ru quotes Tursunov as saying.

The collaboration between Dmitry Tursunov and Ekaterina Alexandrova became known in May, when they were spotted on a training court in Rome. A month later, the tennis player spoke about working with a 40-year-old specialist. On June 18, Alexandrova won the WTA tournament in Hertogenbosch: in the final she defeated Veronika Kudermetova – 4:6, 6:4, 7:6 (3).