Though the Wimbledon Championships are yet to conclude, players have already started making changes to their coaching teams ahead of the hard swing. This includes Felix Auger-Aliassime and Jiri Lehecka, who have decided to part ways with their long-term coaches following their respective exits from Wimbledon. But surprisingly, both announcements came just minutes after one another.

While Auger-Aliassime has ended an almost 10-year partnership with Frederic Fontang, Lehecka has parted ways with Michal Navrátil after working with him for eight years. Auger-Aliassime has made the decision public following a dramatic 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 defeat to Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals. Having started working with Fontang at the mere age of 16, the Canadian shared a montage of videos on his Instagram and bid him a fitting goodbye.

“After nearly ten years of working together, it has recently been decided that Wimbledon would be my last tournament with Frédéric by my side as my coach,” Auger-Aliassime wrote in the Instagram post. “Today, I want to express my deepest respect, gratitude, and admiration for his dedication and the passion he brought every single day to helping me achieve my goals. Since I was 16 years old, he has guided my development and helped me experience incredible moments through this sport.”

On the other hand, Lehecka announced the split with Michal after exiting Wimbledon in the Round of 16 against Alexander Zverev. Despite Lehecka’s solid effort, the German proved to be too good on the day and racked up a 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 victory. He, too, had heartfelt words to say about his former coach and thanked him for all the great memories they shared.

“When I look back, I see eight years filled with hard work, sacrifices, victories, and defeats,” Lehecka wrote in an Instagram post. “Every single one of them had its purpose. Thank you, Michal, for being such an important part of this journey. For your support, honesty, toughness, and for believing in me, especially during the moments when things weren’t easy. Our journey together ends here.”

The announcements were very surprising, especially in Auger-Aliassime’s case. While he only has one ATP title at Occitanie to show for this season, he had recently reached a career-high rank of No. 4. This achievement had made him the joint-highest-ranked Canadian in ATP or WTA history, matching Milos Raonic’s peak.

Moreover, with Auger-Aliassime’s preferred surface being hard, it was shocking to see him make such a major change to his team ahead of the season.

Meanwhile, Lehecka’s decision made much more sense as he hasn’t made deep runs in any notable tournament since the Miami Open in March. He has also not been able to break the top 10 on the rankings despite coming awfully close on occasions.

Jiri Lehecka’s results have deteriorated since the clay swing

Lehecka had entered the clay-court season on the back of a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Jannik Sinner in the Miami Open final. He began the swing with an exit from the Round of 16 against Alexander Bublik in Monte Carlo.

He then had an impressive run to the quarterfinals in Madrid but came up short against Arthur Fils. It was from here that the Czech’s results started to drop significantly. He recorded a second-round exit at the Rome Masters after being defeated 6-3, 6-4 by Casper Ruud. The lowest point came at the French Open, where he was defeated 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 by Pablo Carreno Busta.

Lehecka did improve his form a little on grass and reached the semis of the ATP 250 event in Stuttgart. However, he was handed a 6-7, 7-6, 7-6 defeat by Ben Shelton. He then suffered another early exit at the HSBC Championships as Rinky Hijikata got the better of him in the second round.

Though Lehecka did rack up three impressive wins at Wimbledon, the loss to Zverev was still a big disappointment. He is still expected to remain outside the top 10 and is likely to end up at No. 12 following the SW19’s conclusion.

With the grass swing now over, Lehecka will pretty much be in a race against time to find Michal’s replacement before the hard-court season begins. He wouldn’t want to enter the latter half of the year without the presence of a head coach on his team.