Darren Cahill has announced he is stepping down from his role as the coach of world number one Simona Halep. In addition to resigning his post as the Romanian's coach, he also is taking a 12-month break from coaching.

Under his guidance since 2015, Halep finished as the top-ranked player in the world the last two years.  She won her first career major title this year at the French Open and reached two other finals at Roland Garros last year and this year's Australian Open.

Embed from Getty Images

Cahill releases statement on Instagram

After coaching Halep to ten titles over his four-year stint as coach, the Aussie released a statement on Instagram explaining his decision: "After much thought and discussion, and many years with 30 plus weeks on the road away from my family, I've decided to take a 12-month break from coaching to be home more for support as our children enter important stages of their lives with the final year of high school, sports and college preparations all becoming more time consuming."

Cahill also took the time to praise Halep. "I'd like to thank Simona for the last four amazing years. Her understanding, personality, work ethic, generosity and professionalism made it a pleasure to stand by her side as her coach. She's a young woman of total class and someone I respect greatly which is something more important than any result achieved.

“Basically, I had the dream job and I want to thank her for making it that way, and the opportunity to work with someone so talented and dedicated. I wish Simo and her team nothing but continued success and I look forward to supporting her from the sidelines next year.”

Halep responds with short statement on Twitter

Following Cahill's announcement, Halep took to Twitter to give her thoughts: "Thank you so much @darren_cahill for all your hard work and incredible support over the past four years. I was lucky to have you and what a journey we had. Wishing you and your family nothing but the best and I'm sure I'll see you soon!"

The news comes after the world number one unfortunately missed the end of season WTA finals in Singapore through injury, a tournament in which Elina Svitolina reigned victorious. 

VAVEL Logo
About the author