According to Kamakshi Tandon of tennis.com on Wednesday, Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic has reunited with her coach Sascha Bajin, who is Serbian born, and raised in Munich, Germany. Bajin was initially Pliskova’s coach from November of 2020 to July of 2022. However, Pliskova made a coaching change in the summer when she brought Leos Friedl of the Czech Republic temporarily on board.
With Bajin in her box for 21 months, Pliskova reached the Wimbledon final in 2021. There she lost in three sets to Australia’s Ashleigh Barty, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3. Also while Bajin was coaching Pliskova, she reached the final of the Italian Open, where she was clobbered 6-0, 6-0 by Poland’s Iga Swiatek, and the final of the 2021 Canadian Open, where she lost 6-3, 7-5, to Italy’s Camila Giorgi.
In addition to Friedl, Pliskova has been coached by Olga Savchuk of Ukraine and Azuz Simcich of Croatia. Bajin meanwhile has a history with Naomi Osaka of Japan (2017-2019), Kristina Mladenovic of France (2019), and Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine (2019-2020). Bajin had also been working a little bit with 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia this year.
Bajin was the coach of Osaka when she won the controversial 2018 United States Open Final when Williams had her outburst towards Portugal umpire Carlos Ramos. Bajin was also coaching Osaka when she won her second grand slam title, the 2019 Australian Open. When coaching Osaka in 2018, he was the WTA Coach of the Year.
Before coaching Osaka, Bajin, ironically was also the hitting partner for Serena Williams of the United States. At one time in 2017, Pliskova was ranked first in the world. She has since seen her ranking drop to her current ranking of 31st in the world.
