Simona Halep was defeated by Paula Badosa on her return to the tennis court (after a doping scandal in which she was involved) at the WTA in Miami, and the former world number one announced that she will be coached by Carlos Martinez Comet.

“Symona is a winner, her intention is to return to the elite,” says coach Carlos Martinez

The Spanish coach talked about Darren Cahill’s role in starting this collaboration and had nothing but praise for the two-time Grand Slam champion.

“The fact that Simona was so determined to work with me convinced me. If she’s that interested, I’m just as interested or even more interested.

Just last week I turned down another very interesting project, but here we are talking about Halep, a top player, I had to take this step.

I saw that it was all very clear to her, at this point I don’t need to show her how it’s done, she already came with this foundation of so many years of experience.

She is a very individual player, has a strong character and knows exactly what she wants. I don’t know her that well yet, I just know she’s a nice girl, but from what Darren Cahill told me, she’s also very demanding.

Adrenaline, everyone’s desire, is of great importance, but it would be logical for the adaptation to take some time. We’re talking about someone who hasn’t competed in over a year and a half, it’s not going to be a quick process, but I’d rather focus on the positives.

Above all, Simona has ambitions that move mountains. Now is the time to meet and start working on all sections, both tennis and physical.

There will be three weeks of great preparation to approach the clay season well, not forgetting to be careful not to get injured” – Comet Carlos Martinezin an interview for Punto De Break.

Who is Carlos Martinez Comet

49-year-old Carlos Martinez Comet also trained Kateryna Bindl (Kozlova), Klara Toson, Svitlana Kuznetsova, Daria Kasatkina, Misa Eguchi and Margarita Betova (Gasparian). The Spaniard also worked with Galo Blanco, Fernando Vicente, Mark López, Herman Puentes and Feliciano López.

He achieved important results with Svitlana Kuznetsova. The Russian won two WTA titles (Sydney and Moscow, both in 2016), qualified for the 2016 Tournament of Champions and reached three other major finals (Indian Wells, Miami and Madrid).

Helped Margarita Gasparyan to win the second WTA title in Tashkent-2018.

Martinez coached Daria Kasatkina for four years and led her to four titles – Trophy Phillip Island, St. Petersburg (2021), San Jose and Granby (2022) – and a Grand Slam semifinal (Roland Garros 2022). At the end of the cooperation, the coach said that he recommended the Russian to “see a psychologist.”

According to the WTA, he enjoys fishing, music and sports. Married, has two daughters. In 2013, Martinez opened his own tennis academy, CMC Competition. Now 9 professional players are training there.

As a player, Martínez reached an ATP ranking of 400 in singles and 180 in doubles.

Find out after the match between Simona Halep and Paula Badosa from WTA Miami

• Simona Halep will receive a check for $23,250 and 10 points in the world singles ranking (she ranks 1140th in the Live hierarchy) for being in the main draw of WTA Miami.

• Paula Badosa (80 WTA) will meet in the second round. Aryna Sabalenko (2 WTA), a player whose ex-boyfriend died aged just 42.

• This is Paula’s first victory over Simona. In the first meetings (both took place in 2022), the Romanian won: 6-3, 6-1 in Madrid and 6-1, 6-2 in Wimbledon.

• After Simona HalepAna Bohdan and Jacqueline Christian were eliminated in the first round, Romania has only one representative in Miami: Sorana Kirstia (second round – match with Sloane Stevens or Angelique Kerber).

• Simona Halep played her last official match on August 29, 2022. At the US Open, in the inaugural round, our athlete unexpectedly defeated Daria Snigur (at that time she was ranked 124th in the WTA qualification ranking).

• 18 months of nightmare followed for the former WTA leader – she was banned for 4 years for two separate violations of the Tennis Anti-Doping Program (TADP): the presence and use of the substance roxadustat in a urine sample collected after an anti-doping test. test conducted at the US Open 2022 (1) and irregularities in his biological passport (2). Halep appealed to the CAS, which reduced her sentence to 9 months.