“He will bring me good things, I hope he will help me progress”: Arthur Cazaux has finally chosen his coach, former Grand Slam winner

Cazaux va disputer son premier Masters 1000. Instagram Artur Cazaux

As he is due to play the first round of the Shanghai Masters 1000 this Wednesday, October 2nd against Marin Cilic, Arthur Cazaux will be accompanied by a new coach after several weeks spent looking for the right person.

He preferred to take his time to make his choice. Since his separation from Stéphane Huet just before Wimbledon, Arthur Cazaux was prospecting, trying several ways of doing and seeing things. And after several weeks of reflection, the Montpellier native finally found the right fit, in the person of Frenchman Sam Sumyk.

“I had tried a few, but I liked his approach, his vision of things, his open-mindedness, whether in tennis or other factors that can help in tennis, explains Cazaux by phone from Shanghai. We had a good feeling from the start, he is a coach with experience. It's cool, I think he'll bring me good things, I hope he'll help me progress."

Former successful coach of Azarenka and Muguruza

Already present with the 92nd in the world during the US Open, Sumyk will be his "reference coach for the coming year"details the French player. Aged 57, the Breton coach is obviously no stranger to the world of the little yellow ball since he has coached two world No. 1s.

To his credit, Sumyk has won two Australian Opens (2012, 2013) with Belarusian Victoria Azarenka as well as a Roland-Garros (2016) and a Wimbledon (2017) with Spaniard Garbine Muguruza.

Without a clearly defined objective for the moment, the two men have already decided on several areas of work concerning Cazaux's game. “Work especially on the supports, the footwork and the fact of transferring the weight forward concerning the footwork”, explains the Héraultais.

A passage through the Challenger

Advice that he has tried to put into practice in recent weeks, particularly at the Nonthaburi Challenger in Thailand, where he lost in the quarter-finals to the Australian James McCabe (296th). But why did he return to the second division tournaments? ?

“For some time now, I haven't been able to string together several wins in a row, so I wanted to try to get back into the rhythm and string together some wins. Hence the fact of going to Challengers before Shanghai and after", answers Cazaux.

Cilic for a first in Masters 1000

Before returning to the Challengers, the 22-year-old from Montpellier will play in the main draw of a Masters 1000 for the first time in his career, this Wednesday morning against Marin Cilic.

Currently ranked 212th in the world and benefiting from an injury-protected ranking, the Croatian has just won the ATP 250 in Hangzhou, before losing in the first round of the Tokyo tournament in the process.

“He's not so young anymore but he's shown that, technically, he can beat big players so it's going to be an interesting match, describes Cazaux. I think it's going to be about solidity on serve and return because he's a big server.”