Coaching carousel: Bertens splits with Sluiter, Goerges gets new coach

Kiki Bertens has split with her coach Raemon Sluiter, and says that next season she will work with Elise Tamaela.

"Sometimes you also have to make tough decisions which you believe it would make you better," Bertens wrote on social media.

Tamaela, a former WTA player, was coaching Bertens at the WTA Finals this week, where Bertens played as an alternate before withdrawing with illness. The pair have worked together on other occasions.

Sluiter is a former ATP player who began working with Bertens in 2015. As the 2017 season finished, he told Bertens he would quit unless she found more motivation, and since then she been enjoying new success, winning titles at Cincinnati and Madrid and  reaching No. 4 this season.

Another offseason coaching change was announced by Julia Goerges, who is now being coached by Jens Gerlach. The pair worked together during Fed Cup, and at Linz and Luxembourg.

Goerges, who won Auckland to start the season but has split with two coaches since, reached the final of Luxembourg to finish the season in the Top 30 in the rankings.

Bertens is No. 9 in the rankings.