Coaching changes abound as off-season gets under way

The off-season in tennis, all-too brief for many, brings a little rest and respite, a lot of hard work, and for some players, several shake ups. Wimbledon.com reports on what's being going on so far during the lull of 2014...

In recent tennis history, one Wednesday stands above all others. And perhaps no future Wednesday will ever usurp the Wild and Wacky Wednesday that came during the first week of The Championships 2013, a day of the unexpected that was completed by Roger Federer's second-round defeat to Sergiy Stakhovsky.

But Andy Murray has just had his own spectacular, life-changing Wednesday. With what was believed to be a tennis first by any elite player, he both confirmed he was engaged, and announced changes to his coaching arrangements, on the very same day. Those two pieces of news - Murray to end his association with assistant coach Dani Vallverdu and fitness trainer Jez Green, and Murray to marry Kim Sears - arrived within hours of each other. Murray's decision to part company with Vallverdu, a close friend since their teenage days together at a tennis finishing school outside Barcelona, would not have been an easy one to make, and was rightly seen as a show of faith in his head coach, Amelie Mauresmo, a former Wimbledon champion.

Murray wasn't alone, though, in making personnel changes during the close-season. At the same time as refreshing their bodies, minds and technique, players are also hiring and firing; this is the natural time to reboot your entourage. The changes that you make in November or December could make all the difference on the grass of the All England Club next summer. Among the players to have refreshed their team was Eugenie Bouchard, the runner-up to Petra Kvitova at Wimbledon this year, who is no longer working with Nick Saviano. This was no small act: Saviano had coached Bouchard since she was, in his words, "an ambitious 12-year-old".

Bouchard wasn't the only one of the new faces at the top of the women's game to have made changes, as Simona Halep, the runner-up at Roland Garros to Maria Sharapova, and a Wimbledon semi-finalist, will also have a new-look support-box for the 2015 season. After ending her association with Wim Fissette, Halep has hired Victor Ionita as her new coach. In addition, Halep will be assisted in the opening weeks of the season, including at next month's Australian Open, by Thomas Hogstedt, who has previously worked with Sharapova, Li Na, Caroline Wozniacki and Sloane Stephens.

Another interesting hire was Stakhovsky's move to employ Fabrice Santoro, a Frenchman who, since he was given the nickname by Pete Sampras, has forever been known as 'The Magician'. Indeed, the Ukrainian announced the news to his Twitter followers by introducing Santoro as "an incredible magician, a fantastic person and extraordinary player". Also noteworthy is Madison Keys working in the off-season with former Wimbledon champion Lindsay Davenport, though it has been reported by Tennis.com that the young American is continuing to look elsewhere for a full-time coach.

Jack Sock, who won this year's Wimbledon doubles title with Vask Pospisil, has turned to James Blake, though that won't be a full-time arrangement either, with Blake providing some guidance, but not travelling the tennis road all year. David Ferrer, meanwhile, has a new coach in Francisco Fogues. Borna Coric, a Croatian teenager who defeated Rafa Nadal in Basel during the autumn, will be working with Zeljko Krajan.

For all the changes, though, let's also note how some of the biggest names have remained in their coaching positions (or at least they had done so at the time of writing). This has been the year of the super-coach, with Boris Becker guiding Novak Djokovic to the Wimbledon title and the year-end No.1 ranking, while Stefan Edberg has been instrumental in Federer's resurgence, and it is hard to think that Marin Cilic would have won the US Open without Goran Ivanisevic's assistance, or that Kei Nishikori would have had such a fine year - including making the final in New York - without Michael Chang.

This may be an individual sport, but the past year would suggest you can't do it on your own.