Seeded third despite never having won a match at Wimbledon, Argentine Guillermo Coria has hastily appointed a new coach in a bid to hold his own at the grasscourt Grand Slam.
Coria, who split with Fabian Blengino at Queen's Club last week in the wake of his French Open final defeat, said on Thursday that he had agreed terms with a new mentor.
"My new coach is my countryman Gabriel Makus," the world number three said.
| |||||||||||
"Gabriel knows tons about tennis and he is very responsible. There is not much more to say because the results he has obtained speak for themselves.
"Those results were with great tennis players like Juan-Ignacio Chela, with whom I will share Gabriel, David Nalbandian and Nicolas Massu among others."
Coria said his agreement with Makus is until December but stressed that he hoped he would work with his compatriot until he retires.
"Luckily we had everything settled quickly, because it is not good not having a coach," he said on his website.
Coria split with Blengino following his heartbreaking loss in Paris two weeks ago.
He had led compatriot Gaston Gaudio by two sets to love in the Roland Garros final before letting victory slip away and had sobbed uncontrollably afterwards.
The claycourter insists his decision to part with Blengino had nothing to do with that defeat, however, and nor was it prompted by his opening loss at the Stella Artois Championships last week.
"The agreement with Fabian was just to Paris," the 22-year-old said. "Even though the relationship was very good, I felt it was time to set a team in place that can stay together until the end of my career... that is why I decided not to be with him anymore."
Blengino guided Coria to the Buenos Aires Open and Monte Carlo Masters titles this year, and to the finals of the Miami and Hamburg Masters.
The Argentine is honing his grasscourt skills in the Netherlands this week where he made a late decision to enter the Ordina Open in Den Bosch. Wimbledon begins on June 21.
More from rediff