Romanian tennis player Simona Halep has decided to end her collaboration with coach Victor Ionita. The decision came a day after Halep lost 6-2, 6-0, 6-7 to Kristina Mladenovic in AEGON Birmingham’s quarterfinals.

Simona Halep’s new coach is also a Romanian – Daniel Dobre, reports local Digisport.ro. Dobre was part of the Romanian player’s staff at last year’s WTA Finals in Singapore.

Victor Ionita became Halep’s coach at the end of last season, replacing Belgian Wim Fissette.

With Ionita as a coach, Simona Halep won three tournaments this year. In January, she won the final of the Shenzhen Open in China after beating Swiss player Timea Bacsinszky. Then, in late February, she won the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, marking the tenth career title as a professional tennis player. In March, the Romanian won the Indian Wells tennis tournament after a long final with Serbian Jelena Jankovic.

However, she didn’t make it very far in two of this year’s Grand Slam tournaments. She was eliminated in the quarter finals of the Australian Open and the second round of the French Open at Roland Garros.

In 2014, Simona Halep made it to the final of Roland Garros tournament.

With 6,200 points, Simona Halep maintains her position in the new WTA ranking. She is third in the ranking, after American Serena Williams (11,291 points) and Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova (6,870 points).

The top 5 is completed by Russian Maria Sharapova and Danish Caroline Wozniacki.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com