Lucas Pouille has made an offseason change to his team, announcing Amelie Mauresmo as his new coach. Pouille had been working with Emmanuel Planque, who had coached him for six years.
Under Planque, the 24-year-old Frenchman peaked as high as No. 10 in the world–in March of this season. He was especially impressive in 2016 (reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals after upsetting Rafael Nadal in five sets) and 2017 (won the clinching match for France to capture the Davis Cup title) but took a step back throughout the 2018 campaign. Pouille, who is down to 32nd in the rankings, compiled a 25-21 record and won multiple matches at only one of his final nine tournaments.
Pouille confirmed on Twitter what others had already reported:
Very happy to have @AmeMauresmo as my coach! 🙌 She has the experience and the skills to help me reach my goals. I’m convinced great things are ahead of us! 😉 #Allez 💪🏻 https://t.co/ZR169WSYTy
— Lucas Pouille (@la_pouille) December 6, 2018
Mauresmo waved goodbye to her vacation while expressing a readiness to get her new job started:
Bye bye beauty see you next year !
Let’s do it @la_pouille 💪🏼#ontheroadagain #tennislife https://t.co/x7fu4w5Qh5— AmelieMauresmo (@AmeMauresmo) December 7, 2018
“I’m very happy to start my new collaboration with Amelie Mauresmo,” Pouille said in another post on Twitter. “Her experience as a player and coach can help me achieve my goals. I’m sure we are going to do great things together.”
Mauresmo had been in line to replace Yannick Noah as France’s Davis Cup captain but instead decided to get back to coaching. The 39-year-old had a well-documented partnership with Andy Murray from June of 2014 through May of 2016.
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