For instance, after the U.S. Open I took screen shots for the direction for all of Simona’s second serves and first serves, and on the big points where she was placing them. She had no idea she was hitting every second serve to Maria Sharapova’s forehand. So she took that information with her, and I think that loss made her a better tennis player, and she went and worked on her serve for four weeks and made her second serve more unpredictable, heavier with more spin and with much better direction.

Simona has said that the biggest lesson in her career was her brief split with you after Miami this year. How do you view that now?

It was hard but it was needed. I would have been doing her a disservice if I just patted her on the back and walked away and said, “No worries, we’ll pick things up next week.” Because it was holding her back, so I felt like it was just me doing my job. Regardless of whether it cost me my position as a coach, it was better for her in the long run to understand what she was doing on the court and become better from it.

It seems too few coaches on tour have that kind of leverage or ability to take that kind of risk to walk away. The players control so much of the relationship.

It is a bit of a flawed system, right? It is one of the tough things for coaches to do, no question. But I think as long as you are true to yourself, and you always are doing what’s right for the player, that’s the one thing you need to keep coming back to regardless of whether that’s delivering a message that’s going to see you removed from that position.

I also have always said there is probably a three- or four-year window of coaching a player where you empty the bucket and give them as much information as you can. You basically attempt to coach yourself out of a job, and in tennis because you are usually only working with one player all the time, there is only so much you can really deliver to a player. It’s a short window compared to some other sports or team sports where the rosters keep changing.