Soderling splits with coach Pistolesi

After just 5 months, World Number 5 Robin Soderling and his coach Claudio Pistolesi have split after a rather rubbish start to the clay court season. All in all probably not a real surprise, as the arrangement was made with further clay court progress in mind.

Soderling has been rather off-colour recently with a first round loss at Barcelona followed by quarter finals defeat in Estoril. Injury has played it's part, with Achilles tendon issues said to be hampering the giant Swede over the last month. Soderling won a grand total of three trophies under Pistolesi's guidance, defending his Rotterdam ATP500 crown in February, followed straight after by a win in Marsielle. He also won Brisbane in January.

Despite this recent run, Soderling's best chance of bigger glory clearly lies on the clay, where he's made two slam finals at Roland Garros; clearly the split has been timed bearing in mind that Madrid and Rome are likely to be his last tournaments before Paris itself.

Link.

So, what do you think? I've issued a poll above, it'll be interesting to see what we all think? Great move? Rubbish move? Personally i'm still confused as to why he left Magnus Norman; will he go back to him?

Surely it would have been better to keep him until after Wimbledon...
Who's going to turn it around in such short notice ?

At least give Pistolesi's tenure some purpose !

I can't be too objective about Soderling cos ... I don't like him , but I fail to see why he's split so soon from Pistolesi.

We all know about his two FO final appearances, and yes, he did it and no-one can take it away from him, but personally, I think that has helped him to flatter to deceive. In my opinion, a top 5 player should be able to display multiple Masters titles and consistency with semi and perhaps final appearances in the Slams. But other than two infamous FO final appearances and his first ever Masters win in Paris last year, his record in the Masters is littered with 1st, 2nd and 3rd round defeats (other than 2 x semi's at IW & Miami last year), and a couple of quarter-final appearances in the Slams last year which is what is expected of his ranking.

Where he has his best success is in the 250s and 500s and for me, he's that level of player. He continued with these sorts of victories with Pistolesi immediately with his tenure which would suggest it was a good new partnership. I think Soderling has flirted with the "next level" during his time with Magnus Norman and I'm not sure that any coach can make him good enough to be a consistent Slam and Masters finalist.

I agree with Wooffie. I just think Soderling has reached his level and it doesn't matter who you have in your corner...if you ain't got the game...you ain't got the game.

There are a lot of players like Soderling out there...not so much in style but in ability. Ther make a good living out of it and occasionally hit a hot streak which enables them to capatialise on their talent. The real problem comes when they can't stay there...they level out and quite often slip down the rankings again. Even when Soderling hit this hot streak, I still didn't rate him as a long stayer and still don't. Maybe going back to Norman will help him, but if you want to change a coach so soon after employing him, I think it shows more about the mental attitude, rather than the game itself.

Evening all

Soderling is a one dimensional player with a dodgy temperament.
Norman worked wonders with him and enabled him to maximise his talent.

I agree with Wooffie and denzilsmom, he is just not good enough to go any further and IMO the only way is down as far as he is concerned.

As for Pistolesi, I'm sure he's a good coach, but what can he do?

hi amazon (aria by any chance ?)

Poor old Soderling, when he's in the zone, he can hurt any top player, but he's too consumed with his inner demons, he has a bad case of the wobblies and need constant reassurance that he is a good enough player.

Not pressure wobblies but the stage fright kind.