Who Is Victoria Azarenka’s Coach in 2022?

Last Updated on September 4, 2022

The No. 1 ranked professional tennis player in singles as of January 30, 2012, was born on July 31, 1989. She was born in Minsk, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union to Fyodor and Alla Azarenka. Her brother’s name is Max. She has a five-year-old son, Leo McKeague. She has been acquainted with Tennis since she was seven, and she eventually went pro in 2003. Her idol is Steffi Graf, a former German tennis player.

Victoria Azarenka moved permanently from Belarus to Scottsdale, Arizona, in America when she was 15 with the sole purpose of training. Nikolai Khabibulin, a goalkeeper of the National Hockey League, and his wife, a close friend of Viktoria’s mother, helped her achieve this. She is a native speaker of Belarusian, Russian and English. She also speaks some French and some Ukrainian.

The super-talented player is the first player from Belarus in the male and female categories to get a singles title at the Grand Slam Tournament. She has won the Women Tennis Association (WTA) singles title twenty-one times. This includes the 2012 and 2013 Grand Slam singles win at the Australian Open. In addition, she has also won six Premier Mandatory tournaments, four Premier 5 tournaments, and the bronze medal for singles at the London 2012 Summer Olympics.

Who Is Victoria Azarenka’s Current Coach?

Maxime Tchoutakian

Victoria has been collaborating with Maxime since October 2021. He is a 28-year-old coach from France, born on January 3, 1994. Maxime used to play Tennis professionally till he stopped in 2020. His best career-high ranking was world No. 384. He made $59,293 as prize money from both Singles and Doubles.

Upon working with Victoria, he led her to the 2021 Indian Wells Masters, where she advanced to the semifinals for the fourth time in her career. She won the semifinal match against Jelena Ostapenko to get to her third Indian Wells final, where Paula Badosa defeated her. She is the third woman in the world who has won more games in the Indian Well competition.

He also guided her to the 2022 Qatar Total Open, where she won her 500^th tour-level match against Yulia Putintseva. She had to pull out of her match in the second round owing to a hip injury.

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Victoria Azarenka Past Coaches

Victoria has been led and guided by various coaches over the years. No doubt her career has been successful. A lot of this success has been attributed to these people.

Antonio Van Grichen

The Portugal-born coach worked with Viktoria from 2005 to 2009 for 4 years. He is 43 years old. Before his coaching career began, he used to play Tennis professionally. His highest rank was in doubles as World No. 391.

He has coached other players like Vera Zvonareva, whom he led to the 2010 PTT Pattaya Open win. He was Ava Ivanovic’s coach for about three months before their contract ended. After that, he moved on to Jarmila Gajdosova and Eugenie Bouchard. In 2014, he led Monica Puig to the 2014 Internationaux de Strasbourg tournament, where she won her first singles title.

While Victoria was under Antonio’s stewardship, she won the 2007 US Open doubles title with her fellow compatriot, Max Mirnyi. Her exceptional results at the Kremlin Cup, which took place at the end of 2007, moved her rankings up to world No. 27 and world No. 29 in singles and doubles, respectively.

At the start of 2008, she competed in the third WTA Tour final of her career. The points she gained during the tournament were enough to raise her global ranking to a new career high of No. 25. At the French Open, Viktoria and American Bob Bryan defeated top-seeded Katrina Srebotnik and Nenad Zimonji to win the mixed doubles competition.

Victoria started the following year on a wonderful note. At the Brisbane International, she advanced to the fifth final in her career and won the tournament defeating Marion Bartoli. That was her very first WTA career title.

Antonio guided her further to the Cellular South Cup, where she bagged another WTA title, making it the second one in her career. After that, Victoria and Caroline Wozniacki triumphed in the doubles match by defeating Michal Krajicek and Yuliana Fedak. Her performance at this competition helped her reach a career-high world No. 10 in the singles rankings. This made her the second female player from her country to ever reach that position since the late 1980s.

The pair proceeded to the Sony Ericsson Open. There, she upset World No. 1 Serena Williams and got her maiden Premier Mandatory event title. The win at this tournament uplifted her global ranking from No. 10 to No. 8. With a career-high ranking of No. 7, she ended her contract with Antonio Van Grichen.

Sam Sumyk

The 55 years old French Tennis Coach collaborated with Victoria Azarenka from 2010 to 2015. He is married to Meilen Tu, his former client whom he led to a career-high ranking of No. 35 in 2007.

He previously coached Vera Zvonareva in 2004 and led her to the top ten rankings. He also coached Eugenie Bouchard for seven months in 2015. After that, he worked with Garbine Muguruza, whom he led to her first two Grand Slam singles wins in 2016 and 2017. He also briefly worked with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova for six months.

After Sam and Victoria’s contract commenced, she suffered some losses that caused her to drop to World No. 18. At the Bank of the West Classic competition, she triumphed over Maria Sharapova, winning her first title since the last one in April 2009. That victory returned her rankings to World No. 12. At the Cincinnati Open, she bagged the doubles title and another title at the Kremlin Cup.

Under Sam’s stewardship, she won a title at the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open. She also won the Andalucia Tennis Experience. After the Us Open in August, her global ranking propelled to No. 3, and she won another title at the Luxembourg Open.

In 2012, she won a title at the Apia International Sydney tournament. Subsequently, Sam led her to the  Australian Open, where she claimed her first Grand Slam singles title. She also rose to the No. 1 spot in the world following that match. She moved on to the Qatar Open, where her winning streak continued.

At the Qatar Total Open in 2013, Victoria beat Serena Williams for the first time after consecutive losses since 2009. She won another title at the Cincinnati Open. Sam Sumyk and the Belarusian player ended their contract in 2015 after an injury-dominated 2014.

Wim Fissette

The Belgian Coach was born on March 22, 1980. He is a former professional player. He worked with Victoria from 2015-2016, then stopped because she was pregnant at the time. He resumed being her coach from 2018-2020.

He has worked with notable players like Kim Clijsters, who won the Us Open under his leadership. He also worked with Sabine Lisicki, Simona Halep, and  Angelique Kerber. Wim also collaborated with Naomi Osaka between 2020-2022, and she won the 2020 Us Open and the 2021 Australian Open under his stewardship.

At the beginning of Victoria’s contract with Wim, her ranking was No. 50 in the world, her lowest since 2007. She faced some injuries that limited her performance. She eventually got pregnant and had to go on a hiatus. They got back together between November 2018 and December 2019. During that period, she won a doubles title in Acapulco. They eventually had to split again for undisclosed reasons.

Michael Joyce

After Victoria gave birth to her son, she briefly collaborated with Micheal Joyce. This was from 2017 to November 2018. Micheal is a former tennis player from America. His highest ranking as a player was world No. 64. A notable player he has previously coached is former No.1 spot holder Maria Sharapova. They worked together for seven years.

Victoria did not win any title while working with Micheal because she was dealing with custody battles for her son.

Dorian Descloix

The French-born retired tennis player and coach was born on March 14, 1988. He led Viktoria through games from February 2020 to October 2021. His best career ranking is World No. 666. He retired in November 2020.

As soon as Victoria hired Dorian, she got her first title since 2016. This was at the Western and Southern Open. She was also able to qualify for the finals at the Us Open. The reason for their split wasn’t disclosed. He recently coached Monica Puig.

Victoria Azarenka’s achievements with different coaches

We have collected in the table the data about the trophies won by Victoria Azarenka under the guidance of various coaches.