Tennis coach Wim Fissette will be working with Romania's star tennis player Simona Halep, who recently went up to number 10 in the WTA rankings.

Halep, who lost in the first part of the ongoing Paris tour, and her manager Virginia Ruzici, contacted Fissette and asked him to be her coach. “It was too big of an opportunity to miss it,” said Fisette, quoted by Digisport.ro. He had previously coached 17-year old Indy de Vroome, number 139 WTA.

The 33-year old coach said he was very motivated to work with Halep, who relies on intuition, and who “is one of the smartest players in WTA.”

Belgian Fisette previously coached Kim Clijsters and Sabine Lisicki. Halep's previous coach was Adrian Marcu.

Halep has cracked the top 10 best players in the world, moving up one spot in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings.

The promotion comes after Halep made her first quarterfinal appearance in a grand slam at the Australian Open, unfortunately going down to Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova, who finished as runner up. Last year Halep was named Women’s Tennis Association’s Most Improved Player Of The Year.

Only two Romanians have ever made the Top 10 on the WTA, namely Virginia Ruzici, who got to No.8 and who is now Halep's manager, and Irina Spirlea, who got to No.7.

editor@romania-insider.com