Martina Hingis clearly did not leave a good impression on this former Grand Slam finalist.
Hingis is the youngest Grand Slam champion of all time, winning the Wimbledon doubles title at just 15 years old.
The Swiss was also a very successful singles player, and Hingis has been named as one of the best doubles players of all time.
As well as her credentials on the court, Hingis has also ventured into coaching players, but they do not all seem to have gone to plan.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova explains what she did not enjoy about being coached by Martina Hingis
After announcing her second retirement from tennis, five-time Grand Slam singles champion Hingis fell into her first coaching role with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in 2013.
Pavlyuchenkova was just 21 years old at the time, and on the latest episode of the Table Hockey podcast she explained why she was not keen on Hingis’ coaching methods.
“She was almost a child prodigy at that time,” said 2021 French Open finalist Pavlyuchenkova. “Well basically even now no-one wins a Grand Slam that early. She was just at this academy in France and it just so happened that she came to my training sessions a couple of times as a consultant and then I don’t know, we connected and she decided to help me.
“So the clay series is a month and a half in Europe, so we have tournaments on clay. But the thing is…even if you were a mega cool player in tennis, even a legend, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll become a good coach…Later it bothered me that there were a lot of comparisons with her.
“We have completely different styles of tennis and she even went as far as to say, well she told me when I was warming up I jumped rope for 20 minutes and she said, ‘You don’t do jumping right?’. And then, I don’t know, she loved rollerblading with her Mum to somehow change the environment…Yeah, it was a lot of that, imposing her things from the past and absolutely no individualism towards me, and we have different styles, I’m a completely different physique and so on. That’s why all these nuances, when everyone finished their career, many become coaches, but it doesn’t always work.”
The coaching partnership between Pavlyuchenkova and Hingis only lasted two months, but that is not the only coaching role she has had after briefly working with Belinda Bencic and Sabine Lisicki.
Hingis was also offered the role of coaching Mirra Andreeva, but explained why she had to turn that down.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova suggests if she would like to become a coach
After declaring that she does not believe all good tennis players make good coaches, Pavlyuchenkova was asked if she would ever consider going into it after retiring from on-court competition.
While she suggested she would be open to giving players advice, Pavlyuchenkova does not appear to have any plans to join the coaching circuit.
“No, there’s more of a story somehow of giving advice or suggesting something to someone if needed, no problem…but I’m not ready to do all this again, travelling again,” responded Pavlyuchenkova.
“We have a really crazy schedule, that is from January to November across all continents and now I just feel really bad even from flying. I think I want to sit somewhere, no matter where, and stay in one place for more than two weeks, because I’m there non-stop for a maximum of two weeks and then fly off again to another tournament.”
This is a similar response to the one that was given by former world number one Kim Clijsters, who revealed she had received tempting offers by players.
Pavlyuchenkova has not played since the US Open, and the 34-year-old will now be gearing up for her 21st season on the WTA Tour.
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