Iga Swiatek has hired Wim Fissette as her new coach

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Iga Swiatek has hired Wim Fissette as her new coach

2024-10-17 21:24 Last Updated At：21:31

Iga Swiatek is hiring Wim Fissette to be her new coach, announcing via social media on Thursday that she is bringing aboard someone who has worked with a long list of top players that includes Naomi Osaka, Kim Clijsters and Victoria Azarenka.

“I'm excited and motivated to start a new chapter,” posted the No. 1-ranked Swiatek, who parted ways with Tomasz Wiktorowski two weeks ago after three years together.

Swiatek hasn't competed since Sept. 4, when she lost in the U.S. Open quarterfinals to eventual runner-up Jessica Pegula. Since then, Swiatek withdrew from the China Open and Korea Open.

Next up for Swiatek is the season-ending WTA Finals, which will be held in November in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“As you know, I'm preparing for the WTA Finals but my perspective is, as always, long-term, not short-term. I said many times that my career is a marathon for me, not a sprint, and I'm working, operating and making decisions with this approach,” Swiatek wrote on Thursday. “I want to say that I'm very excited and looking forward to working with Wim. He seems to have a great attitude, vision and huge experience at a very top level of tennis. It's always crucial to try and get to know each other better but we're off to a good start and I can't wait to compete soon.”

Swiatek is 54-7 this season with five titles and about $7.5 million in prize money. She won the French Open in June for her third consecutive title in Paris and fourth in the past five years, raising her career haul to five Grand Slam trophies. Four of those came with Wiktorowski as her coach.

The 23-year-old from Poland also picked up a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics in August.

She will be trying to hold off Sabalenka for the year-end No. 1 ranking.

Fissette, who is Belgian and Swiatek's first non-Polish coach, had worked with Osaka most recently, and helped her win two of her four Grand Slam titles. He also was with Clijsters and Angelique Kerber for major championships. Other No. 1-ranked players Fissette has coached include Azarenka and Simona Halep.

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

US stocks drift as Wall Street heads for the finish of a big winning week

2025-05-16 21:43 Last Updated At：21:50

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is heading toward the finish of a strong, potentially perfect week as U.S. stocks on Friday drift close to the all-time high they set just a few months earlier, though it may feel like an economic era ago.

The S&P 500 was up 0.1% in early trading and potentially on track for a fifth straight gain. It’s heading for a 4.6% rise for the week, which would be its third big winning week in the last four, as hopes build that President Donald Trump will lower his tariffs against other countries after reaching trade deals with them. Such hopes have driven the S&P 500 back within 3.6% of its record set in February, after the index at the heart of many 401(k) accounts briefly dropped roughly 20% below the mark last month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 52 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% higher.

Trump’s trade war had sent financial markets reeling worldwide because of twin dangers. On one hand, tariffs could slow the economy and drive it into a recession. On the other, it could push inflation higher. A couple better-than-expected reports on inflation this past week helped soothe some those second worries.

But all the Trump’s on-and-off rollout of tariffs could by itself damage the economy by creating so much uncertainty that it causes U.S. households and businesses to freeze their spending and long-term plans. A report coming later in the morning will offer the latest snapshot of sentiment among U.S. consumers, which has been souring sharply because of tariffs.

In the meantime, Treasury yields eased in the bond market following this week’s better-than-expected signals on inflation, which could give the Federal Reserve more leeway to cut interest rates later this year if high tariffs drag down the U.S. economy.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.39% from 4.45% late Thursday and from more than 4.50% the day before that. Lower bond yields can encourage investors to pay higher prices for stocks and other investments.

On Wall Street, Charter Communications rose 1.3% after it said it agreed to merge with Cox Communications in a deal that would combine two of the country’s largest cable companies. The resulting company will change its name to Cox Communications and keep Charter’s headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.

Novo Nordisk’s stock that trades in the United States fell 1.8% after the Danish company behind the Wegovy drug for weight loss said that Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen will step down as CEO and that the board is looking for his successor. The company cited “recent market challenges” and how the stock has been performing recently.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed amid mostly modest movements across Europe and Asia.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 inched down by less than 0.1% after the government reported that Japan’s economy contracted at a faster rate than expected in the first quarter of the year.

AP Writers Jiang Junzhe and Matt Ott contributed.